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PROCEEDINGS 



FIRST ANNUAL. MEETING 



NEW-YORK STATE ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY, 



CONVENED AT 



UTICA, OCTOBER 19, 1836. 



PUBLISHED 

rOR THE SOCIETY, 131 GENESSEE STREET, 
HTICA, NEW YORK. 

1836. 



Y 
^v 



MINUTES. 



The First Annual Meeting of the New- York State Anti-Slavery Society con- 
vened at Utica, on Wednesday, the 19th of October, 1836. About four hundred 
delegates appeared and took their scats in the Blcecker street church, at 10 
o'clock A. M. 

The throne of grace was addressed by the Rev. Caleb Green, of Stillwater. 
Dr. Hiram Corliss, Vice President, from Washington County, was called to the 
chair, to preside over the deliberations of the meeting, assisted by Col. Reuben 
Sleeper, Vice President, from Livingston County, and Samuel Lightbody, Vice 
President, from Oneida County, and Wm. Green, Jr., Vice President, from New 
York. Select portions of Scripture were read by Rev. A. Savage of Utica. 

On motion, a Committee of three was appointed to nominate Secretaries, con- 
sisting of A. Stewart, Rev. A. Savage, and William Goodell, who reported the 
names of Josiah Andrews of Genessee, Co., P. V. Kellogg of Oneida Co., and 
R. G. Williams of New York, who were accordingly chosen. 

On motion, a Committee of five was appointed to take the names of delegates, 
consisting of the Rev. Ira Pettibone, Rev. L. H. Loss, Rev. L. Wilcox, S. Kel- 
logg and John Eddy. 

On motion of Rev. O. Wetmore, a commimication from Judge Jay, resigning 
his office as the President of the Society, was read by Wm. Goodell. On mo- 
tion of A. Stewart, Esq., voted that the letter just read be published. 

On motion of Rev. Beriah Green, a letter from the Rev. S. S. Jocelyn was read. 
On motion of Dr. Welcome A. ClarkeofWhitestown, voted that this and all other 
communications be handed over to the Executive Committee for their disposal. 

On motion of A. Stewart, Esq., voted that a Committee of nine be appointed 
to present business to this meeting. Wm. Green, Jr., Lorenzo Neely, Rev. A. 
Judson, Thomas C. Green, Beriah Green, Darlin Thompson, John Thomas, 
Lindley M.Moore, and Benj. Eish, were nominated and chosen as said Com- 
mittee. 

On motion of A. Stewart, Esq., voted that a Committee of five be appointed by 
the chairman to nominate officers for the ensuing year. Rev. George Bourne, 
of NewYork, J. C. Delong, of Utica, Isaac Piatt, of Delaware, Gurdon Grant, 
of Troy and Otis Clapp, of Palmyra, were appointed said Committee. 

On motion of Rev. A. Savage, voted that a Committee of five be appointed 
to draft an address from this meeting to Abolitionista in the Slate of New 



York. A. Sicwail, Esq. Rev. K. Robinson, Col. R. Sleeper, Rev. Fayette Shepard 
and J. Elliot, were appointed said Comniillec. 

On motion of Rev. A. Savage, voted that a Committee of nme be appointed 
to consider the propriety of changing the time of the Annual Meeting of the 
Society. E. Wright, Jr., Gilbert Dean, Jr., Isaac Piatt, Tliomas 11. Canficld, A> 
Crane, Dyer Foot, S. S. Smith, Samuel Edwards and Dr. Hiram Corliss were ap- 
pointed said Committee. 

On motion of A. Stewart, Esq., voted that all who are members of any Anti- 
Slavery Society, although not delegated, be invited to take seats in this Con- 
vention. 

On motion of Rev. O. Wctmore, voted that all members of Anti-Slavery 
Societies from other States be invited to take seats in this Convention. 

The invitation was given by the Chairman for all abolitionists present, who were 
members of any Society, to give in their names as members of this Society. 

The meeting took a recess until 2 P. M. 

AFTERNOON SESSION. 

The meeting was called to order by the Ciiairman. 

The Executive Conmiittee offered their Annual Report through Mr. Goodcll. 

On motion, voted that it now be read. After listening with great interest and 
atteiuion to tiie Report which occupied nearly two hours. 

On motion of the Rev. H.G. Ludlow, of New York, sccondedbyRev. Mr. Bourne, 
of New York, accompanied by remarks from each, and after remarks from E. 
Wright, Jr., of New York, A. Stewart, Esq., of Utica, and Rev. D. N. Merritt, 
of RochcEter, the report was adopted. 

Moved that the meeting take a recess until 7 o'clock in the cvenmg. 

EVENINU SESSION. 

The meeting convened at 7 o'clock. 

The Committee on resolutions reported in part. 

On motion, voted that the report of the C'ommiltee so far as they have reported, 
be accepted. 

On motion of Rev. L. II. Loss, seconded by E. Wright, Jr., with ajtpropriatc 
remarks from each, the first resolution reported by the Committee, was adopted. 

On motion of Rev. II. G. Ludlow, seconded by Mr. Hawley, of Auburn Theo- 
logical Seminary, with appropriate remarku from each, and also from Prcs. Green 
of Oneida Institute, A. Stewart. Escj., of Utica, Kcv. Mr. Mitchell, of Utica, and 
Rev. Mr. Parker, of Clienango C^ounly, t)ie XJd resolution was adoi>tc(l. 

On motion of Rev. E, N. Kirk, seconded by Rev. II. G. Ludlow, the 3d resolu- 
tion was ado])ted. 

Meeting adjourned till 9 o'clock to-morrow morning. 

•rUUIlSDAY MORNINU, OCTOBEIl UO. 

Society met agricably to adjournment, at 9 A. M. 

Prayer was ollercil by the Rev. II. 11. Kellogg of Clinton. 

The minutes of yesterday were read and approved. 

Mr. li. (i. Williams requested to be excused from furllicr service as Sccrclary <'C 
tiuK meeling, on account of oilier engagemcnt.s, winch re<|uest was granted and 
E. W. Claikc of Obwcgo, appouitcd Sccrclary in his place. 



Mr. Green from tlie Comniittee for the arrangement of businosu, reported addi- 
tional resolutions. 

Resolved, That the report be accepted. 

Rev. O. Wetmore, presented and read letters from Samuel Keyes of Essex Co. 
and Lyman A. Spalding of Lockport, Niagara Co., Vice Presidents of the 
Society. 

On motion of R, G, Williams, a committee of three was appointed by the chair 
to draft a memorial to Congress, to be circulated for signatures among the aboli- 
tionists of this State, praying for the abolition of slavery in tlie district of Columbia 
and the Territories, and for the suppression of the internal slave trade between the 
States. 

E. Wright, Jr., Gerrit Smith, Esq., Rev. B. Green, were appointed this com- 
mittee. 

The Committee to draft an address, presented their report, and an address to the 
abolitionists of the State of New York, which was read by A. Stewart, Esq., the 
chairman. 

E. Wright, Jr. of New York, moved, and Mr. Johnson of New York, seconded 
the acceptance of the report and the adoption of the address. After discussion 
by Rev. Theodore S. Wright, Gerrit Smith, of Peterboro', A. Stewart, Esq., and 
S. H. Addington, of Utica, 

Resolved, That the address be accepted, and committed to the Executive Com- 
mittee for publication. 

The 4th resolution was moved by Wni. Goodell, to employ an agent in every 
county in this state, to visit every school district, to lecture and distribute publica- 
tions. [After some discussion by the mover, E. Wright, Jr., R. G. Williams, Gerrit 
Smith, O. Wetmore and others, the resolution was amended and adopted in the 
afternoon.] 

On motion, Resolved, That the sum of ^10,000 be raised tlie present year for 
the use of this Society, and that contributions, subscriptions and pledges be 
now taken for that pm'pose. 

[About $4,500 was pledged, including a few hundred dollars in cash contri. 
buted.] 

Recess till 2 o'clock, P. M. 

THURSDAY AFTERNOON, 2, P. M. 

The meeting was called to order by the chairman. 

Mr. E. Wright, Jr., from the committee on changing the time of holding the 
anniversary, reported, and recommended that the Constitution be altered by sub- 
stituting in the ninth article, the word September for the word October, so that the 
annual meeting shall be held on the third Wednesday of September in each year. 

Resolved, that the report be accepted and adopted. 

Resolution No. 6, was supported in a speech by Rev. H. G. Ludlow, of New 
York, and unanimously adopted. 

Resolution No. 7, was supported by Rev. Charles Stuart, of Whitcsboro', Rev. 
Geo. Bourne, Rev. T. S. Wright, of New York and Mr. Yates, of Troy, and 
unanimously adopted. 



The roniinittec on nominations reported, and upon niolion it was adopted, by 
which the following gentlemen were duly elected officers of this Society. 

Officers of the New-York State Anti-Slavcry Society for the ensuing year. 
President. 
GERRIT SMITH, Esq., Peterboro', ftladison County. 

Vice Presidents. 
GEORGE MILLER, Esq., Suffijlk Comity. 

DAVID LEAVITT, Esq., Kings 
AVILLIAM GREEN, Jr., New-York 
Dr. HENRY WHITE, Westchester 
DAVID B. LENT, Dutchess 
PETER ROE, Orange 
TOWNSEND HADDOCK, Ulster 
JOSHUA LORD, Esq., Columbia 
Rev. Dr. N. S. S. BEMAN, Renselaer 
Dr. HIRAM CORLISS, Washington 
SAMUEL KEYES, Essex 
Rev. RALPH ROBINSON, Oswego 
OLIVER WESCOTT, Franklin 
Gen. JOSEPH A. NORTHRUP, Lewis 
SAMUEL LIGHTBODY, Oneida 
Rev. GEORGE S. BOARDMAN, Jefferson 
RUFUS S. PETERS, Esq., Otsego 
ISAAC PLATT, Delaware 
Rev. HENRY SNYDER, Chenango 
Rev. MARCUS HARRISON, Tompkins 
JOHN McVICKAR, Onondaga 
D. C. LANSING, D. D., Cayuga 
Rev. SAMUEL GRISWOLD, Steuben 
GEORGE A. AVERY, Monroe 
WILLIAM PATERSON, Genessee 
Col. REUBEN SLEEPER, Livingston 
Rev. THOMPSON S. HARRIS, Chatauque 
Hon. ISAAC PHELPS, Erie 
L. A. SPALDING, Niagara 

Corresponding Serrrlarij. 
W1LLL\M GOODELL, Utiea. 

Rernrding Scrrrtnri/. 
Rev. OLIVEP. WETMORE, lUica. 

Treasurer. 
SPENCER KELLOGG, Utica. 

Executive Committee. 
Alva.n Stewart, Esq., Utica, Chairman 
Kiv. Beriaii Grken, Whitcshoro'. 



Kev. Lewis II. Loss, Wliitesboro'. 

Dr. Area Blair, Rome. 

Rev. Joseph S. Mitciieli., IJtica. 

Rev. Amos Savage, " 

John Bradish, Esq., " 

James C. Belong, " 

George Brown, " 

Jacob Snyder, " 

Reuben Hough, Whitesboro'. 

Dr. Welcome A. Clarke, " 
On the announcement of the names of the officers cliosen by the Society, 
Cierrit Smith, Esq., of Peterboro', rose and said : — 

I thank you, sir, and this Convention, for conferring this honor upon 
me. I appreciate the respect toward myself, and the kindness toward 
myself from which this act proceeded. And I esteem it no small 
honor, that has been conferred on me. It is an honor, and a great one, if 
from no other consideration than that the President of your Society must, 
from the fact of his official prominence, share largely in the reproaches 
and perils that fall to the lot of abolitionists. And when we think, sir, of 
the source of their reproaches and perils, how wicked that source is, 
and when we think how they are engaged in the cause of humanity 
and righteousness, these reproaches and perils may well be counted 
noble. But, sir, great as this honor is, I wish to decline it. And I 
would not ask you to release me from it, without giving some reasons 
for my release. I will give them briefly. One of these reasons is, 
sir, that I have but just passed the age of a young man, and such an 
office is better suited to the dignity and experience of more years. An- 
other reason vastly more important than this, is the fact, that I am a 
young member of your society. It is scarcely a year since I joined 
your society. Whilst many others, who are now present, were bearing 
the heat and the burden of the day, and struggling in the beginning of 
this enterprise, (and the beginnings are more difficult than any subse- 
quent stage,) I was wasting my time in fruitless endeavors to reform 
another society, a society, sir, which I have long been led to fear is 
incapable of reformation. For as the lawyers would say, it can not 
be reformed in its root or its branches, its main object or its incidents. 
Whilst you, sir, and your coadjutors were engaged in this noble enter- 
prise, now before us, I was also wasting my time in carping at you, 
in finding fault with your measures. I do not now, sir, blame you for 
these measures. Like all the works of man, they are stamped with 
imperfection. The nearer we approach these measures and the more 
cordially we embrace them, the less fault we find with them, 
the less objections we see in them. Contrary to what we see 
in physical objects, the farther we keep away from them, the more they 
abound in faults and objections. But wc know, sir, that these measures 
have been approved and bles.sed of God, and if we prosecute them 



iaUhfully, with honest heads and honest liearts, they will be crowii" 
cd with triumph. I have another objection to acceptiiiff this honor. 
There are between my home and this place, thirty miles of pretty 
bad roads, and the President of your society should be one of its acting 
officers ; he should live in the place where your Executive Connnittee 
principally reside, or near the place, that he may frequently meet with 
them, and counsel with them. I could very rarely meet with this 
Committee. I am greatly attached to my home. Since God in his 
righteousness has brought desolation to my home, I love it more than 
ever. The spot once trod by the feet of my children, is dearer to me 
than when they trod it. It is painful to me, sir, to leave my home ; 
and to be faithful to the trust confided to me, if I were to accept this 
office, I should be obliged to be here every few weeks. You have 
fit persons, many fit persons, in this neighborhood for this office. — 
Here is one, sir, I need go no farther than my friend, the President of 
Oneida Institute. We who were present last evening, and on whose 
ears he poured out " thoughts that breathed and words that burned," we 
who know how he has devoted himself with fidelity for many years, to 
the advancement of this cause, how he has spoken and written and pray- 
ed and toiled for the dumb, we know his competency for this post. 
If I were allowed to name a person for this place, I would name him. 

[Afler remarks from several gentlemen, Mr, Smith consented to wave liis 
objections, and serve the Society by accepting the office.] 

The Committee on nonunations submitted, with their report, the following reso- 
lution, which was adopted. 

Resolved, That the magnanimous self-denial, the unappallcd fortitude, the 
arduous labors, and the unflincliing perseverance of tlie Officers and Executive 
Committee of the New-York State Anti-Slavery Society, durmg the past year, 
are very affectionately appreciated, and most cordially approved by tlie Society. 

Mr. Gerrit Smith, presented a paper from IJ. F. Cooper, Esq. of Utica, explan- 
atory of his conduct as one of the committee of twenty-five, wliicli led the mob 
into the church and broke up the Convention which formed this society on the 21st 
day of October, 1835, 

Resolved, Tiiat the paper be submitted to the Executive Committee to be dis- 
posed of at their discretion. 

On motion of Rev. S. S, Smith, Resolved, Tiiat during this evening but two 
addresses be beared on one resolution, and tiiat no speaker occupy but 15 minutes 
caoli without tlic consent of tlie meeting. 

Mr. Spencer Kellogg, Treasurer, read the Treasurer's annual report wliich 
was, on motion, acccjjted. 

Recess until evening. 

THUnSDW EVENINC;. 

The Committee on a Memorial to Congress, presented a form, which wa.-^ 
ailopted. 

Rev. II. II, Kellogg, of Clinton, spoke on the resolution rrcommcnding to C^hris 
lian bodies, to address their Soullicrii brethren on the subject of slavery. 



Mr. R. G. Williams, of N. Y., spoke on the rcHoiuUoii,iii relation to the circu- 
lation of anti-slavtry publications. 

j\Ir. L. Neely, of Orange Co. spoke on the resolution (No. 9,) relative to the 
exclusion of the colored people from our literary institutions. 

Rev. Geo. Storrs, spoke on the resolution iu relation to the duty of the 
churches in respect to holding fellowship with those who persist in the practice of 
slaveholding. 

Prayer by Rev. T. S. Wright of N. Y. 

Adjourned sine die. 

RESOLUTIONS. 

Tlie following Resolutions were adopted during the Meeting : — 

1. Resolved, Tliat we regard that device of American Legislation wliich reduces 
man, made in the image of God, to the condition of a mere chattel, as annihilating 
all moral attributes and relations, and as necessarily involving the highest crime 
that can be committed on moral being; and consequently that whoever claims the 
right of property in man by virtue of a title founded in such legislation, makes him- 
self a sinner of the first magnitude. 

2. Resolved, That since Slavery is a rude and presumptuous invasion of the prero- 
gatives of Jehovah who has expressly declared " All souls are mine," its abolition 
demands the moral energies of the Christian World- 

3. Resolved, That we should prove ourselves unworthy of every claim to the 
character of philanthropists, of Christians, of patriots, and of the friends of liberty; 
if, with our views of American Slavery, we should terminate or remit our efforts 
in the cause of immediate emancipation. 

4. Resolved, That agents of this, or of the Parent Society, or both, ought to be 
employed, without unnecessary delay, in every county of this state, to visit every 
township and school district in regular succession, to circulate our publications — 
to converse with individuals — to lecture as opportunity offers — to circulate peti- 
tions — to organize au.xiliarics — and thus carry the knowledge of our principles 
and the adoption of our measures into every portion of tlic state, and that, witli 
the blessing of God, we will sustain the State Society in the prosecution of this 
work, until it shall be fully accomplished. 

5. Resolved, That, in the opinion of this Meeting, Ten Thutisttitd Dollars 
should be raised for the use of this Society, for the coming year, and tliat the 
members of this Meeting be now invited to give their pledges as individuals or for 
their respective local societies for this purpose. 

6. Resolved, Tiiat we welcome as most important and powerful coadjutors in 
the glorious cause of Emancipation, the females of our country. 

7. Resolved, That the prejudice peculiar to our country, wliich subjects ouj 
colored brethren to a degrading distinction in our worshiping assemblies and 
schools, whicli withholds from them that kind and courteous treatment to which, as 
well as other citizens, they have a right, at public houses, on board steamboats, in 
stages, and in places of public concourse, is the very .'spirit of slavery, is nc. 
farious and wicked, and sliould be practically reprobated and discountenanced. 

2 



10 

8. Resolved, That the friends of the colored people deem it their duty to use their 
influence to procure places, and encourage colored youth to learn trades, and help 
them into honorable employments. 

9. Resolved, That the prejudice which excludes colored youth from the advan- 
tages of our Colleges and Literary Institutions, is unchristian^ inhuman, and 
cruel; and demands the unqualified reprehension of every friend of education, and 
philanthropist. 

10. Resolved, That while as abolitionists, wc disavow all connection with 
party politics; yet, feeling it our duty to exercise the elective franchise, wc 
deeply regret the disposition of our fellow citizens to elevate to ofliee men who 
openly sacrifice the rights of northern freemen to southern slavery. 

11. Resolved, That wc most cordially sympathize with our brethren, Birncy, 
Nelson, Lovejoy, and others, who have been called to learn by experience, how to 
feel for " them that are in bonds as bound with them ;" and wc would olTcr sincere 
thanks to our great Protector, that though cast down they are not destroyed. 

12. Resolved, That it be recommended to religious communities to memorialize 
their Southern brethren who hold their fellow men in bondage, remonstrating with 
them in the spirit of Christian love, and urging them to tJie duty of letting the 
oppressed go free. 

13. Resolved, That we detest and abhor as the most nefarious of trafficks, the 
internal slave trade, which is now carried on between the states, attended as it is 
with most of the cruelties of the African slave trade, by which, more than One 
Hundred and Twenty Thousand annually, are torn from their homes, and driven like 
beasts to a Southern niarket ; and, that it is the duty of every freeman in this nation, 
to lift his voice against it, and cease not to petition Congress to put forth the same 
arm to stop this nefarious trafilck, which crushed the African slave trade. 

14. Resolved, That, as a member of His family, who is tlic Father of us all, 
every sufferer, and most of all the slave, has a strong claim on ever}' man, for his 
warm sympathies, and prompt and strenuous aid. 

15. Resolved, That the doctrine so often advanced in justification of slavery, 
that what is abstractly wrong is practically right, involves violence to human na- 
ture, contradiction to God, and the subversion of the standard and the disruption 
of the bonds of a pure morality. 

IG. Whereas, it was iirineipally by the inllucnco of Ciirislianity, that tlie slave 
trade both in England and America, and recently slavery itself in the British 
West Indies, were abolished, and as it is by liie same influence, that we can reasona- 
bly hope for its abolition in this country, therefore. Resolved, That the high and 
decided stand wliich the CJhristians of Great Britian have taken on this subject, 
and the disinterested and persevering ellbrts, which they are using for the aboli. 
lion of slavery throughout the world, are very grateful to our feelings, and should 
meet a hearty response in the bosom of every (Christian in the United Slates. 

17. Resolved, That tiie females of our country are especially responsible for the 
]iruvalfi)ci' and continuance of tlie cord of east, which is iVarlully witiiering and 
destructive in \\m bearing on our colored brethren. 



11 

18. Resolved, Tliat the sophistry, threatcnings and violence, which have 
been employed to intimidate and crush the abolitionists, afford appropriate and 
ample confirmation of the soundness of their doctrines, and the wisdom of their 
measures. 

19. Resolved, That the friends of human nature have a right confidently to expect 
from the christian pulpit, a hearty and earnest advocacy of universal and imme- 
diate emancipation. 

20. Resolved, That the present pressing crisis of the anti-slavery cause in this 
country, calls loudly for a more extensive circulation of anti-slavery pubhcations, 
and that it is therefore the duty of abolitionists personally, to make immediate and 
vigorous efforts to get at least one anti-slavery periodical into every family in the 
land. 

21. Resolved, That our hope for the speedy and bloodless abolition of slavery is in 
God alone, who can enlighten and sanctify the hearts of men — and that it is our 
duty in our closets, families, and social prayers to make this a subject of fervent 
supplication. 

22. Resolved, That while we have a heart to pray, and a tongue to plead, and 
a hand to toil, we will, by the help of God, subserve without ceasing the cause of 
holy freedom. 

23. Resolved, That the people of this State ought to petition their next Legisla- 
ture to memorialize the national Congress in its legislative capacity, to abolish 
slavery in the District of Columbia and the internal slave trade now carried on in 
that District and between the several states. 

24. Resolved, That the system of American Slavery, which reduces men, made 
in the image of God, and redeemed by the blood of Christ, to the condition of 
beasts, calls loudly for the reprobation of the church ; and that northern Chris, 
tians especially, are called upon to bear a steady and faithful testimony against 
any branch of the church that in any way sanctions or upholds the slavery of tliis 
land ; and if that testimony is still disregarded, it is the duty of the churches 
which are pure from this "shocking abomination" solemnly to withdraw fellow, 
ship from those professing Christians and churches who disregard their admo- 
nitions. 

25. Resolved, That every county, towTi, and district, be earnestly entreated to 
listen to the cry of 2,500,000 American citizens, robbed of all their rights, and 
without delay, to obtain as far as possible signatures to petitions to Congress, to 
abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, and the territories, to put a stop to the 
internal slave trade, and prohibit the exportation of slaves to Texas. 

26. Whereas — His Excellency, the Governor of this State, in his last annual 
message to the legislature of the same, thought proper to repeat the common- 
place accusations of our opponents of that period, accusing Abolitionists of 
seditious and insurrectionary conduct, and whereas, the Hon. the Senate and 
House of Assembly in a preamble and resolutions adopted by them, saw fit fully 
to sanction the sentiments and statements of said message : 

And whereas, in his said Message, His Excellency the Governor asserted it to 
be within the rightful and constitutional prerogatives of the Legislature of this 



12 

State, to enact penal laws proliibiting the circulation and publication of Anti- 
Slavery writiugs, and suppressing Anti-Slavery efforts, declaring that " without 
the riower to pass such laws, the states icould not possess all the iiecessary means 
fur preserving their external relations of peace amang thcinxelven''' and only 
refrained from recommending their enactment, because it was alledged that abo"- 
tionismwason the decline : 

And whereas, the said Senate and House of Assembly, in said preamble and 
resolutions have fully sanctioned and adopted this sentiment : Therefore, 

Resolved, (1.) That since Abolitionism is not on the decline but on the advance 
in this State, it becomes the duty of Abolitionists, as well as of the people at large, 
to examine the subject, and meet the crisis it presents. 

Resolved, (2.) That Abolitionists, not only as citizens and as innocent men, 
but as persons accused of crime, wliethcr innocent or guilty, are entitled to be 
beared in self defense, before tjie Legislature of this State, and be held innocent 
until their guilt can be made to appear. 

Resolved, (_3.) Tliat it is the duty of Abolitionists, and of all the friends of 
freedom and equal rights m this Stale, to petition the State Legislature to give the 
Abolitionists a full hearing in the premises, and extend to them such redress as truth 
and justice may be foimd to demand. 

Resolved, (4.) That justice to the rights of a slandered and innocent class of 
citizens, a regard to t!ie fundamental principles of human rights, a prudent regard 
for the public welfare, and for the freedom and independence of the non-slave- 
holding states, unitedly forbid the e.tiiitence of any species of legislative action 
against Aboliliunisls. 

Resolved, (5.) That we regard the legislative resolutions of the Hon. Senate 
and House of Assembly of this Stale, against Abolitionists, as an unconstitutional 
assumption of judicial power, yet exercised in a manner contrary to, and subver- 
sive of, all regular judicial proceedings, ^)osse6sing all the essential features of an 
ex post facto la'.v, substiluling the unlimittd infliction of public odium and pro- 
scription upon persons unconvicted of crime, for the dofinilo and limited ])uniBh- 
ment awarded by law and executed by the public officers, and therefore, far more 
injurious to Iheir victimu anJ dangerous to the liberties of the people, than any 
pf;nal *;riactment8 howevtr unjust and JtjBpolic. 



DELEGATES TO THE ANNUAL ]\IEETIi\G OF THE NEW-YORK 
STATE ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY. 

Oneida Coimti/. — Henjamin S. VValcott, John Alexander, W. W. Ali xander, 
Rev. A. Savagt', Robert Aie-tander, Bradley Ecal, Wni. D. Waleott, F. A. S|)fn- 
cer, S. CarViT, Roswoll Sayrc, John \Vlu'el.r, Heniy -M. Gregory, F. 1). Porter, 
GburhsC. W.-st, Gcorgo Slcdnian, iJiiijauiiu Walker, Giles Waldo, S. Brigiiani, 
Wmi. F. I\ra^^!^ M.Elin.r, (Jo. Tcicixk, (i. H. Lillh jolm, S. S. Sh. Idon. Rev. 
('. A. Ciaik, SoliiMuin I'niiliss, I'. Dimming, AUxumlcr M'Kellar, Robert J. Wood, 
Rrv. S. W'cllw, t^liurle.s r. Uusii, Joini W. ("ook, Wm. Huiilcr, Ira Wells, E. E. 
Kirkland, lobiaii i:aloii, S. Biyaiit, H. l* I'oiid. II W. Cobb, G. A. Canlmc, Dr. 



13 

L. Z. Havens, George Waklo, B. F. Bullock, J. Prcscott, W. Gates, S. A. Jack- 
son, Rev. J.Myrcs, G. C. Mitchell, Kcv. J. B. .Shaw, O. G. Brown, S. M. Ferine 
W. J. Savage, S. P. Ncwland, L. Lawrence, I. Finch, II. D. Tucker, G. G. Ward, 
S. F. Ledyard, John Temple, F. W. Gould, P. V. Kellogg, E. Herrick, N. Flat. 
wood, G. D. Fostt r, J. M. Martin, T. C. B. Knowlson, E. P. Glark, S. II. Ad- 
dington, Rev. G. Storrs, Nathan Cobb, S. N. Burnett, N. Sherrill, E. Fairchild, 
Geo. Brown, Wm. Underwood, T. Steele, G. Bartlctt, W. A. Clark, Samnel Light- 
body, David Ambler, E. Pattison, S. Prentiss, Dr. A. Blair, Rev. A. Sedgwick, 
Rev. L. H. Loss, Lucius Pond, Daniel Pcttibone, L. Prince, A. Thomas, A. Sey- 
mour, J. Morrison, Wm. K. Tibbits, H. Bushnell, A.Clemmcr, Rev. Charles Stu- 
art, John Powell, O. Prescott, S. P. Gambia, H. Scovell, Rev. A. Cross, N. Tuck- 
er, P. C. Pettibone, J.S. Dixon, J. A. Canfield, Hiram Day, J. R. Everett, J. M. 
Bradley, C. Sexton, E. M. Higbee, Cha's Dickinson, J. Copeland Jr., Geo. Lawson, 
C. T. Wilkinson, D. Bartlctt, J. Flanders Jr., F. C. Woodworth, Ed. Loomis, J. 
C. Delong, Sam'l \\'. Green, S. E. Miner, G- L. Foster, Gains Butler, Charles 
Coohge, L. Pil. .Shepard, P. Rawson, J. A. Thurber, A. H. Gorton, Rev. G. Ratrio 
Parburt, D. Judson, S. B. Roberts. Rev. J. Brayton. M. Brayton, C. Grant, G. 
Grant, F. Dana, Rev. J. Ingcrsoll, Henry Crane, A. Gray, F. A. Gray, E. Hollis- 
ter, N. P. Bishop, R. Everett, Wm. D. Forten, Richard J. Butler, Rev. A. Crane, 
A. Brigham, P. A. Andreu, Thos. Holbrook, Thos. Bucl, W. Warner, Joseph 
Foster, W. H. Chandler, J. Pattengill, L. P. Rising, Rev. P. Field, Ed. Raymonds, 
Norton Porter, Chas. Judson, Thos.^Bollcs, Rev. I. Pettibone, F. D. Cory, J. Thur- 
ber, H. Newland, A. Hanna, Thos. E. Jones, John Kneal, Wm. Wright, J. M. 
Benham, E. C. Clark, H. S. Clark, C. Calkins, J. R. Dixon, J. Dixon, J. J. Doo- 
little, W.W. Farwell, J. Ketchani,J.H. Kassan.J. M.Gilberl, H. O. Collins, G. 
Tompkins, W. S. Wilson, W. B. Sewell, E. C. Ward, F. Havens, W. F. Harris, 
H. Winslow, S. Whaley, H. A. Williams, E. C. Williams, T. B. Lyman, J. w! 
Pratt, D. C. Van Norman, Dr. S. W. Stewart, Rev. H. H. Kellogg, Tlios. Williams, 

A. Stewart, Jacob Snyder, Spencer Kellogg, Geo. H. Smith, E. Scofield, John P. 

B. Batchelder, James Spyre, John Bradish, J. W. Doolittle, Shubal Storrs, J. E. 
Warner, Stephen Bushnell, E. Dorchester, J. Vanderhuysen, Wm. Stacy, Wm. 
Woodard, L. Bailey, Abiram Mills, W. Kellogg, Frederick Kellogg, Palmer 
Townsend, Mr. Carr, E. Barber, Rev. Geo. Finney, John Wheeler, Wm. Castle, 
H. W. Cobb, Rev. J. S. Mitchell, Ira Robinson, A. ToplilF, Luther Holbrook, 
Reuben Hough, S. A. Dewey, C. C. ChaiFee, E. C. Geer, Vietor C. Putman, Rev. 
Oliver Wetmore, Alvan Stewart, Rev. Beriah Green, Wm. Goodell, Rev. J S. 
Mitchell, J. N. Todd. 

Oswego County. — Edward W. Clark, T. E. Grant, A. S. Savage, A. S. Coleman, 
Jolin N. Holmes, G. G. Doane, N. Smith, Rev. Ralph Robinson, Hartly Holmes, 
Wm. H. Petit, Horace Hitchcock, Norman Miller, J. E. Woodbridge, Moses W, 
Lester, Henry Rhode, Daniel W. Ingersoll, H. A. Stevens, T. C. Baker, T. S. 
Meacham, Dea. Meacham, Sylvester Brown, Hamilton Littlefield, Dr. D. Clark, 
Rev. J. Waterman, Rev. S. Denison, E. A. Coleman. 

Otsego County.— Alvin Parmelee, F. M. Andrews, T. E. Turner, Charles 
Metcalf, F. W. Andrews, Horatio Pattengill, Humphrey Hallis, Smith Penfield, 
R. Peters, A. C. Lathrop, E. Tucker. 

New-York City. — Wm. Green, Jr., Rev. Geo. Bourne, Rev. John Gray, L. W. 
Gilbert, E. Dorset, R. G. Williams, Wm. P. Hotchkiss, Rev. Theodore S. Wright, 
Rev. H. G. Ludlow, Rtv. La Roy Sunderland, E. Wright, Jr., Chas. G. GitFord, 
Rev. Danl Clark, H. H. Garnet, Geo. M. Tracy, R. P. Derickson, Wm. A. Tap. 
pan, Wm. Johnston. 

Clinton County. — Orson B. Ashman. 

Dutchess County. — Gilbert Dean, Jr., Edward Canfield. 

Schenectada County. — L. D. Baldwin, J. G. Duryer, Richard P. G. Wright. 

Monroe County.— A. Stedman, L. M. Moore, Rev. H. A. Saekett, Marcus vVdams, 
Rev. D. N. Merritt, Samuel Cubhing, Rev. David Marks, II. Barker, G. A. Avery, 
II. B. Sherman. 



14 

Mndisnn Cnuntij.~C B. liOril, Liithcr Riirrell, Rev. H. Gregfg, O. Stevens, 
iMarlin Wilcox, Key. II. S. Ilamilton, E. II. I'ayson, A. Scofielcl, Rev. C. C.Cad- 
well, li. C. Walton. J. W. Adams, VVillard Caltoii, Rev. Win. B. Tompkins, 
Ezra Campbell, Rev. J. N. T. Tucker, E. S. CadwcU, Edward Lewis, Francis 
James, Edwin Lewis, Gerrit Smith, A. Raymond. 

Montgomery County. — A. S. Seaton, Robert Brown, Thos. C. Gccr, E. Tucker, 
James Carnduff. 

Geiicssee County. — Rev. J. Elliott, Josiah Andrews. 

St. Lawrence County. — Thos. H. Canfield. 

Lewis County. — Benjamin Phelps, Rev. Henry Jones. 

Livingston County. — Rev. R. Sleeper, R. Porter. 

Onondaga County. — Chas. Clark, Horace Robins, S. Edwards, Philip Flint, D. 
Thompson, Seth Conklin, W. W. Porter. 

Washington Count)/. — Dr. Hiram Corliss, Abijah P. Bcebe. 

Albany County. — Rev. A Judson, Rev. E. N. Kirk, G. Giay, T. Brook. 

Orange County. — L. Ncely. 

Delaware County. — Isaac Piatt, George Gerril, Robert D. Andrews, J. IL Kcd- 
zic, S, Hanford, Rev. F. Shcpard, E. Iloyt. 

Wayne County. — Otis (;lapp, J. J. Thomas, G. H. Moore. 

Chenango County. — Rev. J. M. Parker, Rev. E. A. Poole, V. Waters, Wm. 
W. Chapman, H. W. Lee, R. Seymour, Wm. Talcott, J. M. Fox. 

Niagara County. — Wm. Adams, Josiah Tryon, Justus Dobbin, Ephraim Gregory. 

Tompkins County. — Dyer Foote, Solomon Higgins, Samuel Iliggins. 

liensf'Uacr County. — Rev. Thos. J. IlaswcU, Rev. John J. Mitre, E. Grant, S. 
Town, Joseph Wolfe, James H. Howe, S. E. Miner. 

Chatauque County. — Rev. J. Munson. 

Ontario (Jounty. — Isaac Hathaway, Jared Hathaway. 

Saratoga County. — Caleb Green. 

Herkimer County. — S. Crosbey, John Barber, L. Gaylord, Alfred Warrener, 
Josiah Thompson, J. Campbell, E. Ilolcomb. 

Cayuga County. — A. P. Hawlcy, Robert R. Kellogg, Rev. Z. Covell. 

Orleans County. — A. Thomas. 

Essex County. — Rev. Abraham HalT. 

Sandwich Islands. — S. N. Castle. 

Hennipine, 111. — Chancy T. Gustin. 

Danrille, Ky. — Rev. J. D. Burchard. 

Portage Co., Ohio. — Isaac Bigelow, 



ANNUAL REPORT. 

REASONS FOR CillATlTUDE. 



Ill picseiitin<; their first Annual Rej)ort, the Executive Committee 
of the New-York State Anti-Slavery Society would acknowledge, with 
devout gratitude the protecting Providence that has spared them another 
year, and caused them to dwell in safety, notwithstanding the scenes 
of violence in the midst of which the Society was, a year ago, organ- 
ized. They find additional cause of thaid<sgivingon a review of the 
[)ast year, in the consideration that those violent measures, disgracetiil 
and demoralizing as they were, in themselves ; have been over-ruled 
f<»r the lurtherance of the righteous catise they were designed to over- 
whelm, and fur the promotion of which this! Society was formed. 



15 



PEnSECUTION INCREASF.S F.FFORT. 



So far from intimidating the friends of human rights, oilhor in this 
city, this state, or any portion of our country,\ve have the most satisfac- 
tory evidence that the demonstration then made, was instrun)ental, not 
only of opening for the first time, the eyes of many, to a view of the dan- 
gers to which the rights of American citizens are exposed from the 
existence of slavery, but to nerve with fresh energy the phalanx of 
devoted men already enlisted for its overthrow. 



AN INSTANCE IN POINT. 



At the very time our Convention was in session, measures were in 
progress for holding a similar convention in Rhode Island. We have 
sufficient authority for the statement that a knowledge of the outrao-es 
committed in this city, and of the firm stand taken by our Convention, 
was among the prominent causes which produced the unprecedented 
expression of public feeling in that state in favor of the cause we 
cherish. More than eight hundred names were sent in, as appended 
to the call for a convention in that little state, which in territory and 
population, scarcely exceeds some of the inland counties of this. In 
one of the coldest days of the last winter, the greater part of the sign- 
ers assembled at Providence, and after a session of three days, con- 
tributed t^vo thousand dollars to the anti-slavery funds ; established a 
central depository and commodious public reading room, in which 
the anti-slavery periodicals of Europe and America are spread out for 
the gratuitous perusal of citizens and strangers ; at which the abolition 
literature of the times may be purchased in large or small quantities, 
and from which, by a systematic establishment of conveyances and 
agencies, a regular supply of periodicals is furnished for distribution 
in every part of that state, with the neighboring parts of Massachusetts 
and Connecticut. We can not, here, forbear the inquiry, if Hide Rhode 
Island could do this, last winter, what should the great State of New 
York do, now .' 

This single specimen may serve to show how vainly the enemies of 
human rights have labored, to stop the diliusion of liberal principles 
by brutal force. 

PROGRES3 OF THE CAUSE IN THIS STATE. 

In our own state, the march of truth during the past year, tiiough 
less rapid than we could desire, less vigorous than under different cir- 
cumstances and with greater exertions, we might have witnessed, and 
hope to witness in future, has nevertheless been onward, uniform, pros- 
perous, and steady. 

The labors of Theodore D. Weld, have been crowned with signal 
success, at Utica, Rochester, Lockport, Brockport, and other places. 
At Troy, notwithstanding the violence he had to encounter, we have 
reason to believe he has performed a great and good work. The 



16 

friends of order, (jf liberty aiul oi" l;i\v, lu that city and rounty, havti 
been sliown on what foundation they^stand, and who arc their enemies 
and friends. What use they will make of so important a discovery, 
must show, but these are cheering indications which warrant correspond- 
ing hopes. 

Other agents have labored in this state to some extent, and, we be- 
lieve, not without beneficial effects. In connection with the labors of 
Rev. liUman Wilcox, employed for a time, by the Executive Commit- 
tee of this Society, a county society, auxiliary to ours, has been organ- 
ized in Delaware County. 

Occasional services have been rendered to the cause by several 
students of the Oneida Institute, at W^hiteshoro', and the Committee 
anticipate ftill more elfcctual assistance from the same quarter, during 
the regular vacations as they occur. 

But it can not be denied that the whitening harvests of abolitionism, 
in this state, have been sutfering for want of lecturing laborers during 
the past year, and are sutfering still. Shall this lamentation be con- 
tinued ? Are there not lips, touched with a live coal from the altar of 
holy freedom 1 And are there not friends of liberty who will supply 
them with daily bread ? 

The Committee rejoice, in this connection, to mention the recent 
arrival among us, of the Rev. Geo. Storrs of New Hampshire, whose 
labors under the auspices of the Parent Society, by whom he is still 
sustained, have been highly useful. Other lecturing agents sustained 
by the same society arc about entering, or have already entered upon 
the work in this state. Among these we may mention the Rev. A. 
Sedgwick of Rome, who has been several weeks in the tield, and from 
whose labors we may confidently expect much good. 

Mr. W. C. Rogers, of Utica, has recently been appointed by the 
Executive Committee of this Society, to lecture, collect funds, and 
procure subscriptions to our weekly publication. His efficiency and 
success, thus far, alibrds high promise of his usefulness to the cause. 

A SUGGESTION. 

Several others are needed to labor in the same way. An agent of 
this description to labor in every county, is much needed. He should 
visit every township, village, and school district. Our friends in dif- 
ferent parts of the state, might render the Coininittit: much service, by 
looking up, and commending to the Committee's attention, the suitable 
men for this service, and suggesting the most appropriate fields tor 
their labor, and by assisting them, while engaged in their vicinities. 
The work of moral illumination and reform, must be made a work of 
patient, j)ersevering, syslcmatic, local and minute detail, bolurc the mass 
of the community will be intelligently and beneficially moved to cor- 
rect action. The experiments and the testimony of Dr. Chalmers of 
Edinburgh, on this point deserve an attention they have not received. 



IT 

Much, very much of the moral efforts of the day are wasted, or the 
harvests left to perish ungathered, for want of this feature in our moral 
enterprises. Vague, general, random, and half-finished labors have 
often left a field more difficult to cultivate than if it had never been 
entered. The more obscure and remote portions of the country are 
scarcely reached at all. The farmers and mechanics, who constitute 
the bone and muscle of the community, and who would come up to 
the work of emancipation en masse, if they only had its claims fairly 
placed before them, are left comparatively unvisited, simply because 
they live in the seclusion of rural life ; while the rank and crowded hot- 
beds of aristocratic pride, corruption and vice, because more easy of 
access, more prominent, assembling larger audiences, and perhaps 
supposed to exert a commanding influence on the surrounding country, 
are almost exclusively selected for visitation. The result, we well know. 
An aristocratic mob — an influence pestiferous, deadly and deceptive, 
on all the region within the central influence. A regular County ef- 
fort — taking town by town, and school district by school district would 
do much to remedy this defect, especially if, (as was done in Rhode 
Island) the farming and manufacturing neighborhoods were first visited, 
before the larger towns and villages were approached. The towns 
and cities should be made to feel the healthful influences of the salu- 
brious country ; instead of packing up the smoke and filth of the cities 
for distribution among the surrounding farmers. 

OTHER OPERATIONS OF THIS SOCIETY. THE PRESS. 

The establishment of a weekly newspaper at Utica, devoted to the 
interests of emancipation has been one of the primary objects toward 
which the attention of the Executive Committee has been, during the 
past year, directed. In this enterprise, the members of the Committee, 
in addition to large drafts on their attention and time, have made heavy 
disbursements and incurred weighty pecuniary responsibilities. The 
" Friend of Man " was commenced on the 23d of June last, but pre- 
vious to that time, the Standard and Democrat, (now merged in the 
present publication) had been for several months published upon the 
same responsibility. If the weekly paper now established is to ac- 
complish the objects for which it was designed, it must be more widely 
circulated and more liberally sustained. Experience has proved, what 
might have been inferred a priori, that periodicals designed to change 
the public sentiment, can not derive from the spontaneous patronage of 
newspaper subscribers, their full support. While, therefore, individual 
subscriptions, to the greatest possible extent, should be given and ob- 
tained, the examples of the Temperance press in Albany, and of the Anti- 
Slavery press in New York should seem to indicate the wants of the 
Anti-Slavery press in Utica, and the true policy of those who desire a 
" local habitation " and a central home of abolitionism in the heart of 
our empire state. 

3 



IS 



TEACHINGS OK PROVIDENCE. 



The events of Divine Providence during the past jear, connectec! 
with the great ends of our organization as a society, have been truly 
wonderful and instructive. They have been grand, and varied. — 
They have been painful, and yet cheering. They have been at once 
rich with encouragement, and portentous with warning. Develop- 
ment after development has successively broken in upon the stupidi- 
ty of public apathv. Scene after scene has glided rapidly before us. 
Flash after flash, and peal after peal, have the lightnings and thunders 
of eternal truth and justice beamed upon us and rolled over us. If 
any evidences were wanting that the warnings of abolitionism are the 
warnings of God himself in the ears ol an oppressive nation, these ev- 
idences are supplied in the sMper-hunian emphasis which has been giv- 
en to those warnings by Him in whose hands are the hearts, and ways, 
and destinies of men. All the elements of the literary, social, eccle- 
siastical, political, and religious world are in motion, and they are sc> 
moved that they are made to tell with mighty eflect, at every step, 
upon the great interests of the oppressed. They are so moved that 
the most opposite evolutions are made to contribute to the same effect. 
They are so used as to subsidize, and work up into the one great fab- 
ric of increasing abolitionism whatever of raw material there is moving 
among us, of whatsoever shape, quality or texture it may be. They are 
moved, just as any intelligent observer or calculator would suppose 
they would be, if he knew they were moved " according to the good 
pleasure " of some evcry-where-prescnt and all-pervading intelligence, 
who had determined the overthrow of slavery, and was acting with a 
superintending efficiency in aid of the despised and hated advocates 
of '' modern abolitionism." Events apparently the most disastrous 
and untoward, have furnished the most striking illustrations on thi» 
point. 

GEORGE TIIOJIPSON. 

When George Thofnpson, the Lafayette of our bloodless and law- 
ful revolution, was driven by persecution about a year ago, from our 
shores, what abolitionist was there who did not feel that providence a 
chastisement, and prostrate himself in the dust with the inquiry — 
** Lord ! why is it thus wiffi us ?" The humiliation and the inquiry 
were appropriate and salutary. But who does not now see, that 
George Thompson has been doing more for us in Europe than he could 
have done for us in America ? The Great Master Builder knew in 
what part of the rising ediffce his services were most needed. False 
brethren wore mining for our overthrow in the affections of our Brit- 
ish fellow laborers. False iilosses upon American despotism and its 
apologists, were industriously exported by the interested traffickers in 
»' slaves and souls of men." Georgi- Thom[)^on was needed in Eng- 
land : and yet what could he have done there, without a Breckinndg* 



19 

to accept his challenge, and to demonstrate by the gigantic but vain 
etfoits of his splendid genius and talents, the righteousness ol the cause 
that, in the eyes of all Europe, so s'lgnaUy crusked him 1 It should be 
noticed also, that the enemies of George Thompson, by driving him 
with their assassin dirks from our shores, and sending him home to 
the fraternal embraces of the Wardlaws, and Heughs, and Munsells 
of his native country, and to the honors of public meetings, with the 
Provost of Edinburgh and the High SheriiT of London in the chair, 
have been made the unwilling instruments of proving to the world 
their own malice and infamy, in reporting him a vagrant renegado, a 
fugitive from the public justice of his own country, when he visited 
our own. 

BR. REUBEN CRANDALL. 

A citizen of our own empire State, was pining in the dungeons of 
our own District of Columbia, a year ago, beneath the walls of the 
very capitoL, and it was scarcely through our representatives in Con- 
gress during the past winter, that his northern fellow citizens could 
<;autiously, and with much circumspection, adventure to hold corres- 
pondence with him, lest a mere knowledge of the fact should insure 
his destruction ! During the period of his incarceration, the land rung 
with the demand — " What have northern citizens to do u-ith the aboli- 
tion of seuthern slavery /"' Divine Piovidence was preparing to sup- 
ply, in the history of the trial that resulted in his acquittal, an answer 
which must forever settle and silence that inquiiy, with every intelli- 
gent and free-born American. " Northern citizens have to do with 
southern slavery, because northern citizens, deserving the name, are 
not safe in their own District of Columbia, so long as southern slave- 
ry continues ! " "I am a Roman citizen," was once a sufficient 
pass-word for republicans ; but, " I am a citizen of New York," is 
but a pass-word to the Bastiles of the American capitol, if suspected 
of friendliness to freedom. Dr, Reuben CrandalU a most estimable 
citizen of Peekskill, in the county of Westchester, escaped immolation 
upon the altar of slavery, only because the District Attorney, an offi- 
cer of the federal government, was unable to prove that be had express- 
■ed in the hearing of his fellow citizens, the sentiments of John Jay^ 
of Benjamin Franklin, of William Pinckney, and of Thomas Jeffer- 
son ! Every citizen of this State who will possess himself of the lit- 
tle pamphlet that records the judicial proceedings in this case, will 
possess documentary and authentic evidence that iw citizen of this 
State can safely visit the scat of the national government, unless pre- 
pared to hail " domestic slavery as the corner stone of our republican 
edifice." What description of representatives shall we be safe in send- 
ing there ? 

THE president's MESSAGE. 

U .seemed a dark hour for our proscribed hand of abolitionists, wbra 



20 

the President of the United States descended from the high seat to 
which many an abolitionist had assisted in elevating him, to repeat in 
his annual official message, the pitiful accusations ol our bar-room op- 
ponents, to brand us as incendiaries, plotters of insurrection, as enemies 
of our federal constitution, and disturbers of our country's quiet ; and 
yet, the accusation furnished opportunity for the Executive Committee 
of the Parent Society at New York, to exhibit such proofs and chal- 
lenge such investigations as have silenced at once and forever all 
simdar charges from whatever quarter they may hereafter come. — 
From even the Hon. John C. Calhoun himself, the concession was 
extorted, before the close of the congressional session, and he made 
it in his place in the Senate, that the purposes and operations of the 
abolitionists were only moral and suasive, not violent and insurrec- 
tionary. 

MR. CALHOUN's report THE MAILS. 

Nor was it in this view alone, that the President's Message worked 
for our good. His proposition for punishing the disseminators of abo- 
litionism through the U. S. Mails, drew forth the report of Hon. John 
C. Calhoun, who clearly saw in the President's proposition, the vest- 
inw of a power in Congress, not more dangerous to the abolitionist 
than to the slaveholder. " If Congress," said he, " may this year de- 
cide what incendiary publications are, they may next year decide what 
they are not, and thus laden their mails with real though covert aboli- 
tionism." This simple thought is the key to his whole report, and ab- 
olitionists are indebted to Hon. John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina, 
for the ablest defense of the position that the federal government can 
not legislate down abolitionism, without destroying the constitution 
and the republic, that has ever been penned in this country. At the 
same time, the substitute proposed by him, in lieu of the President's 
proposition, a substitute embracing the monstrous absurdity that the 
North could be bound by the restrictive legislation of the southern 
states, when it would be unsafe for them to intrust such a power to 
their own representatives, was a position still more manifestly untena- 
ble than that of the President, which he had successfully overthrown. 
The result we may easily understand. The project of restrictive le- 
gislation was abandoned. Not only so. Instead of a law, as propo- 
sed by the President, requiring a discrimination between the different 
publications offered to the U. S. Mails, the nation was astonished with 
an enactment, duly " approved " by the presidential signature, prohib' 
iting such a discrimination under severe and degrading penalties ! A 
careful attention to the recommendation of the President appears to 
have abundantly convinced all parties that no j)arty was safe, without 
the sheltering wings of an legis sulliciently broad to cover, at once, the 
abolitionist and the slaveholder. In connection with the previous pil- 
lage of the U. S. Mail at Charleston, the countenance given to the 



21 

outrasje by the Post Master General, and the unlawdil refusal of the 
Post Master at New-York city to receive and mail abolition publica- 
tions, the President's Message and the Report of Mr. Calhoun placed 
both Houses of Congress, and the President himself, in the inextrica- 
ble dilemma of either prostrating the whole mail establishment, as a 
medium of trust- worthy communication, or else enacting a law as ful- 
ly requiring the safe transmission of anti-slavery publications as though 
the Bill had been drafted by the Anti-Slavery Committee themselves ! 
Among the lessons taught by this providential and wonderful result, 
we may perhaps arrive at some tolerable data for ascertaining the dan- 
ger that the South will divide the Union to stop the circulation of the 
so called " incendiary " publications. The " South" when the crisis 
arrived, would not even relinquish the benefits of the federal Mail to 
do it, as the silent passage of the post office law abundantly testifies ! 

MR. PINCKNEY's report. 

Perhaps the Report of Mr. Pinckney in the House of Representa- 
tives, when its tendencies shall have become sufficiently developed, 
will scarcely prove less favorable to the cause of human rights. The 
historical data adduced to prove that the abolition of slavery in the 
District would be a breach of the public faith, is already found to be 
rich with the materials for arriving at a contrary conclusion. The 
pretense that the proper uses of the District by the federal government 
do not require the abolition of its slave code, is calculated to remind 
our statesmen of the historical /ac; that the District was once ravaged, 
and the national archives destroyed, simply because the arms of free- 
men were occupied in defending their firesides from their slaves. — 
Nay, more : that the very freedom from extraneous control, which the 
federal legislators sought' hy the acquisition of the District, can never 
be enjoyed in the presence of slavery, since members of Congress are 
threatened with assassination for questioning its claims. Above all, 
the claim of Mr. Pinckney, that the slaveholders of the District hold 
their slave property by a tenure of original and inherent right, beyond, 
and above, and before all acts of human legislative power, are so sus- 
tained by the arguments and authorities adduced in his Report, as can 
not fail to foster the suspicion that slavery itself can not lawfully exist 
by acts of human legislative power ! that no human constitution can 
confer the power ! that a righteous judicial decision, without any spe- 
cial statute for the purpose, would terminate slavery in the District, 
as it was terminated in Massachusetts and Great Britain ! Mr. Pinck- 
ney may not, indeed, become the Granville Sharpe of the operation, 
but if abolitionists do not prove dull scholars under his tuition, they 
need not despair of furnishing one from among their own number. 

The Honorable Messrs. Pinckney and Calhoun, it is understood, 
are at war with each other, for the glory of having originated the wi- 
sest counsels against abolitionism. Posterity, perhaps, may deter- 



22 

mine, whicli of them has most eflectually contributed to its triumph. — 
The adoption of the resolutions appended to Mr. Pinckney's Report, 
may seem to furnish an exception to the favorable results of the last 
winter's congressional discussion. But the effects of these resolu- 
tions themselves remain yet to be developed. If the people of the 
United States do not intend to surrender the right of petition, if they 
are not inclined to constitute Congress a Holy Inquisition to sit in 
judgment on the creeds of their constituents, if they have not forgotten 
the importance of separating the judicial from the legislative functions, 
and do not mean to be held liable to condemnation for crime without 
the transgression of law, then the time is not distant (if it be not al- 
ready come,) when those resolutions will re-act against those who fra- 
med them, and in favor of those they were designed to intimidate. 

SPEECH OF J. Q.. ADAMS. 

It was a dark hour for the cause of liberty we plead, when freedom 
of speech was denied in the halls of Congress, and when a representa- 
tive of Massachusetts, (not long since the Chief Magistrate of our re- 
public,) was forbidden to lisp a syllable in his place, lest by some dis- 
tant implication he should seem to blaspheme the Great Diana of the 
South ! But it was the darkness that betokened the approach of day- 
dawn. By what complicated machinery of providential arrangements 
that illustrious individual was put in possession o( ihe local facts he 
needed at that singular crisis, and just at the moment when they could 
be made available for the cause of righteousness ; facts which, in all 
probability, were not known to half a dozen individuals, until poured 
like thunder by John Quincy Adams upon the unexpecting ears of a 
startled world ; facts Avhich no individual destitute of his extensive 
and minute political knowledge and intuitive insight, would have been 
able to connect, arrange, and wield, to any adequate precision and 
momentum ; facts which only could have been gathered by years of 
attentive observation, in a foreign land which the orator himself had 
never visited: by what super-human forecast, we say, all these scat- 
tered materials were brought to such a focus, at such a crisis, we need 
not stop to inquire ; and the Christian abolitionist 7)cc(l ?iot ask ! Suf- 
fice it to say, that at the very moment when the pent-up fires within 
him could no longer be suppressed, the able statesman and orator was 
found armed ftjr the mi<rhtiest effort of his laborious life. The facts 
were there — the occasion was presented — the hour was come: and at 
his bidding, the dark, deep, demon-minings of weary and shamelul 
years, were, in one moment, bared to the piercing sunlight, and scat- 
tered to the careering winds ! If this nation u to be saved fiom a 
Mexican war — if the Ruler of the Nations designs to preserve us from 
a contest in which " «« attribute of his nature could take sides with 
us," then will every circumstance that contributed to draw out the 
.sjx'fch of tfdhn (Quincy Adams uj)on the Texian conspiracy, be proved 



23 

a niercitul arrangement of his providence. Or if, with this timely 
warning, the nation madly rushes on to her ruin, the justice of her 
punishment will have been, by the same means, most fully and amply 
vindicated. And not the less signal should we regard this providen- 
tial aid to our cause, when we remember that its respected instrument 
is not numbered among the advocates of our efforts. 

ATTEMPTS AT NORTHERN LEGISLATION. 

The same general lessons of instruction, of admonition, of warning, 
and of encouragement, may be learned from the records of those 
eflorts of several of our state authorities to suppress free inquiry, to 
proscribe the doctrine of inalienable rights, and to punish as felons, or 
abandon as outlaws, the asserters of the truths contained in our na- 
tional Declaration of Independence, for which the annals of the past 
year will become memorable in all future time. That such a design 
should have been seriously entertained in this period of our repubhc, 
and in this age of the world, in the face of our national and state con- 
stitutions and bills of rights, and by men with the praises of republi- 
canism on their tongues, and the profession of attachment to our con- 
stitutions for their watchword, will forever remain among the most par- 
adoxical chapters of human history. But the friends of our society 
have been compelled to witness them during the past year, and al- 
though the sight has been such as to try men's souls, yet the gold of 
abolitionism has come out with seven fold purity and brightness from 
the lire. 

A year ago, the momentous question was in suspense whether the 
legislatures of the northern states in obedience to the demands of the 
South, should proclaim " death without benefit of clergy " * — " the 
highest civil penalties and ecclesiastical censures " f to the " traitor- 
ous radicals " who should adventure to question the " divine right" of 
a slave-holding aristocracy to compel the unrequited labor of the poor. 
Already, some of the first " Literary and Theological Reviews " had 
felt the public pulse, without eliciting any marked symptoms of alarm. 
Already the leading influences of " the church " to an alarming extent, 
had sent in an adhesion, in advance, to any usurpations that might be 
deemed " expedient " by the " state " declaring that " the sword and 
the keys " J should be inseparable. Already a northern judiciary 
stood ready (as later developments have disclosed) to visit with fines 
and imprisonment the free laboring white citizens of New York, who 
should have the audacity to fix the price of their own labor, while the 
aristocracy were combining under the sanctions and facilities of law, 
to grind the faces of the poor. On the whole, the project of Gov. 



* Message of Gov. M'Duffie. 

t Vide Literary and Tfieological Review : N. Y., Dec. 1835 

t Ibid. 



24 

M'Dutfie (or extending " the corner stone of our republican edifice," 
to the North as well as the South, was in the full tide of successful 
experiment, and his prediction of completing the revolution within 
twenty-five years, was in the apparent process of a much earlier ful- 
fillment. 

ABORTIVE ATTEMPTS IN MASSACHUSETTS. 

Dark indeed, for the interests of the cause we plead, were the pros- 
pects held out by these alarming indications, less than one year 
ago. Peculiarly ominous did it appear, when the very spot upon 
which the fires of American libcity were first kindled was selected as 
the site of their extinguishment — when after the public proclamation 
of southern lynch law as the paramount code of Boston, and af\er 
the cradle of liberty, Fanuil Hall, had become the nursing chamber 
of Slavery, a governor of Massachusetts adventured to suggest in his 
official Message, that a republication of the doctrines of '76 by the 
freemen of that Commonwealth, was an ofl'ense " indictable at com- 
mon law " — when a legislative committee of known accordance with 
these views was appointed to consider and report upon the southern 
demands, and when one of the first civilians of Massachusetts,* whose 
" Political Class Book" had been for several years current in the pub- 
lic schools, (and which was now discovered to have been covertly in- 
sinuating the same slavish doctrine into the minds of our youth.) came 
out now boldly, with the unblushing demand, and a very popular one 
with the leading men in political and ecclesiastical power, " that 
the village and country inhabitants " being no longer held in check by 
the " public sentiment " of their betters " in Boston," should be prohibited 
by adequate pains and penalties, from assembling with their wives and 
children, to hear the " exciting appeals " of the lecturers on slavery 
and human rights ! 

The darkness of that hour was rendered still more dense, when a 
few of the citizens of that Commonwealth whose dearest rights were 
at stake, and whose advocacy of human liberty was apparently on the 
verge of being proscribed as a felony, were denied by the Legislative 
Committee, as a matter of right, the full and fair hearing which is 
claimed and enjoyed by every citizen of that Commonwealth who 
chooses to plead that his pecuniary interests, to the value of a dollar, 
are jeopardized by the granting of a proposed act of incorporation to 
a turnpike company ! And yet the very blackness of this darkness 
was selected by the good providence of God as the central focus of 
a sudden and bright light. The refusal of the Committee to hear the full 
defense of the abolitionists, produced an appeal to the Legislature. By 
the preponderancy of the agricultural and artisan members, this ap- 
])eal was not without its efTect. The Committee were directed to al- 



* Hon. Wilhaiii Sullivan. 



25 

low a full defense. The interest excited by these circumstances drew 
forth a full public audience in the Representatives' Hall, including a 
majority of the Legislatnre itself, at the next interview of the abolition- 
ists with the Legislative Committee. Then it was, in full view of 
their fellow citizens, that the legislative pro-slavery Committee were 
left to the infatuation of acting out themselves, and their southern confed- 
erates, to the life. In the face of the legislative order to allow a full 
hearing to the abolitionists, they were silenced and put down with in- 
sult, in the midst of their plea, without the least shadow 6i a reason ! 
The Chairman of the Committee, with the communications from 
South Carolina and Alabama lying on the table, before him, (the very 
fetters forged by the hands of southern slave-drivers for the ancles of 
northern freemen,) was seen reaching forth his lily fingers to put them 
on ! The sturdy yeomanry of N. England savv it, with their own 
eyes. Had Gov. Gayle or Gov. M'Duffie, been in the place of the 
Hon. Geo. Lunt, the effect could not have been more powerful. It 
was like an electric shock. The sons of the Puritans could not sit quiet 
and unmoved on their seats. One after another, not abolitionists, rose 
spontaneously, and addressed, most eloquently, the Committee. The 
assembled legislators caught the infection. From that tune forward, 
the cause of free discussion lacked no advocacy in either House of 
the Legislature. A full statement of the plea offered in part by the 
abolitionists was printed, and placed in the hands of every member. 
One press after another, spoke out in favor of freedom. Citizens of 
Boston, not identified with anti-slavery movements, presented memo- 
rials, inviting legislative attention to unconstitutional aggressions of the 
South upon the " guarantied rights " of the North, aggressions of 
long standing, notorious, yet hitherto, unnoticed. The tide of oppres- 
sion was checked. The pro-slavery Committee in an elaborate report, 
recorded their own good wishes for the overthrow of liberty, without 
daring to recommend, either an enactment or a resolution correspond- 
ing with their own feelings ! The Report itself was buried in the 
grave of indefinite postponement, and the framers returned to their con- 
stituents to meet from almost every countenance the withering rebuke 
they merited. The cause of freedom received a new impulse, and by 
the late decision of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, a master 
bringing a servant into that State must bring him there a freeman. 

ABORTIVE ATTEMPTS IN RHODE ISLAND. 

Scarcely less signal and auspicious has been the winding-up scene 
in the pro-slavery drama enacted during the past year, in the Legisla- 
ture of Rhode Island. Newport, the former seat of the African slave 
trade, (now branded as piracy,) having become the favorite summer 
boarding house of the southern slave master, a pro-slavery town meet- 
ing of Newport, procured by Benjamin Hazard, a representative in 
the state Legislature, and distinguished for his opposition to the Tem- 

4 



26 

perance cauee, had adopted a series of resolutions to be laid before 
the Legislature of Rhode Island. They were presented by Mr. Haz- 
rd, last October during the preparation for the Rhode-Island Anti- 
Slavery Convention. The business was referred to a committee, of 
vhich the gentleman from Newport was chairman. The report of this 
Committee was made at the February session in Providence, just af- 
er the rising of the Anti-Slavery Convention held in the same city. 
It closed with resolutions, implicating the abolitionists, by cautious 
nuendo, as promoters of sedition and insurrection, and recommend- 
ing the passage of a law which was likewise reported, providing for 
penal inflictions upon the authors of seditious and insurrectionary pub- 
lications I 

All this, in Rhode Island — the soil of Roger Williams — the land of 
religious freedom — the state that so long hesitated to ratify the feder- 
al constitution, lest it should infringe the freedom of speech and of 
the press — that finally appended to its ratification the explicit proviso that 
these were not surrendered, recommending at the same time an amend- 
ment of the constitution, requiring Congress without a delay of 20 years 
to abolish the foreign slave trade, which was deprecated as " tending 
to continue the slavery of the human species," a practice " disgraceful 
to the cause of liberty and humanity " ! 

That Rhode Island should have been the first — the only state in the 
Union, whose annals should have been stained with the records of a 
reported and proposed legislative enactment for annulling freedom of 
speech and of the press on the subject of slavery, was certainly among 
the most wonderful and startling of the " signs of the times." If it did 
not create unprecedented alarm among the friends of freedom in that 
State, it was only because their already unprecedented anti-slavery ef- 
forts had placed them on a vantage ground proportioned to the existing 
exigency. As it was, their efforts were prompt and energetic to avert the 
calamity that threatened them, and the holy cause of human freedom. 
The Committee had reported the last evening of the session, with the 
evident view of having the Bill passed in the hurry of the moment, with- 
out deliberation or debate. One or two members, (who were afterwards 
called to encounter the displeasure of the aristocracy for their temeri- 
ty) adventured to demur, and the subject was postponed till the next 
session. No time was lost by abolitionists in circulating remonstran- 
ces, and petitions, praying to be beared in self-defense. The prayer of 
the petitions was granted and a new committee appointed, at the next 
session to hear them. A public notice by the Chairman of this Com- 
mittee, designated a day to give the abolitioitists a hearing, and invited 
their attendance at the State House in Newport. The time ar- 
rived, and the abolitionists were on the spot, prepared with (heir Coun- 
sel, and ready for a defense. But a majority of the liCgislative Com- 
mittee, well knowing, by the previous resnlt at Boston, that a public 
Uefeiuje would insure the defeat of the Bill, declined giving them » 



27 

hearing, and reported to the Legislature a proposition to defer the busi- 
ness to the next session, allowing the abolitionists only the presenta- 
tion of a written defense ! This extraordinary proposal was contest- 
ed in the Legislature, and subsequently the original resolutions and 
Bill were withdrawn by Mr. Hazard, the Chairman of the Committee 
that originally reported them. 

The abolitionists deemed themselves aggrieved in not being allow- 
ed an opportunity to make their defense, after having been accused as 
traitors against their country. They therefore petitioned for the use of 
the State House (which had been used for the Newport pro-slavery 
meeting) and were denied by a majority of eight votes. The dispo- 
sition of the Legislature to take away the rights of the people, became 
therefore, providentially, a matter of public record, while, by the same 
good Providence, the unhallowed design was defeated — defeated too, 
under circumstances which demonstrated to the world, that Rhode Island 
remained a free state, untrammeled by the gag laws of the South, only 
because her aristocratic demagogues dared not enslave her — that they 
dared not, only because their machinations had been exposed by th_ 
anti-slavery lecturer and the anti-slavery press — that they dared not, 
because, between the two rival parties, abolitionists were known to 
hold the balance of political power, and while they would favor no 
partisan schemes, they would support no enemies of free inquiry and 
human rights. No fact upon the page of history stands more irrefra- 
gably attested than this — that the energy of anti-slavery efforts has 
saved the liberties of Rhode Island. 

ATTEMPTS IN NEW YORK. 

And how stands the case, with the " empire state " of New York ] 
Has the proud title of " empire " reconciled her to the thought of ceas- 
ing to remain a republic ? Has the " empire " submitted to an " em- 
peror '? " A nation," says the renowned Montesquieu, '* may lose its 
liberties in a day, and not miss them for a century." 

In the whole history of ofKcial denunciation of abolitionists by the 
chief magistrates and legislators of these American republics, there is 
perhaps no instance to be found in which the aspersions are more un- 
founded, abusive and reckless than those contained in the message of 
His Excellency Gov. Marcy of New York, And no one, perhaps, 
has more fully and plainly asserted the right of the state legislatures 
to punish as a capital offense the promulgation of the doctrines of 
Jefferson, of Franklin, and of Jay, respecting inalienable human rights, 
and concerning the outrage upon these rights committed by the slave 
system. " Without the power to pass such laws " says Gov. Marcy, in 
his last annual message, " the states would not possess all the necessary 
means for preserving their external relations of peace among them- 
selves." The only reason he assigns for not recommending the im- 
«wediate enactment of such laws, is because the " fanatics " and " in- 



28 

cendiaries " who have audaciously attempted to promulgate the " self- 
evident " doctrines of equal rights, are so few and contemptible, and 
are diminishing so rapidly that they will probably become extinct 
without giving the state government the trouble of suppressing them ! 
According to his late message, His Excellency the Governor, should 
.e find the abolitionists on the increase, and continuing and enlarging 
heir operations for diffusing their sentin)ents, will ieel himself obli- 
ged by every sentiment of regard to the internal peace of the states to 
recommend the enactment of such laws as shall effectually silence 
and suppress them. 

In the expression of these views. His Excellency is fully sustain- 
ed by the Honorable, the Senate and House of Assembly of New 
York, who have cordially and explicitly re-echoed and indorsed the 
sentiriients of his message. The friends of liberty, of free discus- 
sion and of a free press, in the state of New York, are therefore called 
upon to look the crisis in the face and prepare to meet it as they may. 

Is it thought that the passage of those apparently imbecile and 
pointless resolutions, unarmed by the sanctions of law, constitute a 
mere blank in our moral and political history ? Listen to the maxim 
of Vattel : — " It is against silent and slow attacks, that the nation 
should be particularly on its guard." 

Better were it for the rights of abolitionists, and the prospects of 
continued freedom, and the reign of law and order in our own State, 
that the Bill reported by Benjamin Hazard for Rhode Island, had be- 
come, last winter, incorporated among the Statutes of New York, 
rather than that our legislature had so far overste|)ped the boundaries 
prescribed for them by the constitution as to forget that they were ap- 
pointed, not to denounce meris persons, but to enact specific laxos ibr 
their government ; not to usur[) a judicial power that was never com- 
mitted to them ; not to destroy the checks of the constitution by blend- 
ing the legislative and judicial departments of government ; not to attain 
the unjust and oppressive ends of an ex post facto law by denouncing 
actions condemned by no authorized code, without giving us the op- 
portunity of escaping its effect, by pleading its unconstitutionality, by 
procuring its regular repeal, or at the least, enjoying the benefits of a 
trial, previous to the infliction of the severest of all penalties, the loss 
of character — and handing us over to the most inhuman of all execu- 
tioners, the ignorant, the ferocious, the Bacchanalian mob. 

Thus reasoned the friends of liberty ir. Massachusetts. They dis- 
tinctly deprecated legislative censures as a greater usurpation and a 
more dreaded injury than the severest penal enactments. " Let us," 
said they, " be arraigned, if needs be, as culprits " for leaching the 
doctrine that all men are created equal ; " let us be arraigned under 
the most rigorous espionage of our words and writings that ever char- 
acterized the legislation of a iNiclmlas or of a Spanish Inquisition, but 
give us, at least, the opportunity of pleading and proving the facts of 



29 

the case in our defense, (if indeed wc may not be deemed innocent 
till our guilt shall be proved,) rather than be committed to the lender 
mercies of live thousand executioners of an extrajudicial sentence ; " 
above all, " let not the Legislature at one session denounce, unheared 
and untried, a specific class of their constituents as circulators of' in- 
cendiary and seditious publications,' in order to forestall their con- 
demnation under the statute of a future legislature against ' incendia- 
ry and seditious publications.' " 

Thus reasoned the abolitionists, last winter, on Beacon Hill. The 
logic, in Massachusetts is generally accounted sound ; and at this 
moment, the laws of Turkey, of Austria, of the See of Rome, or 
even of Louisiana, in relation to the press, would with less scruple 
and less public alarm be proclaimed in the State House at Boston, than 
the legislative resolutions adopted by the Assembly of our own slate 
of New York ! 

THE CRISIS IN THIS STATE. 

The storm, then, that has passed over the Narragansett and the 
Wachusett, is still lowering over the valley of the Mohawk and the 
western lakes. The work that has been doiie up by our brethren in 
Rhode Island and Massachusetts, remains still on our hands ; tlie 
loork of shielding the free white citizens of our own state from the mana- 
cles of the southern task master ! In this work, we have only the 
companionship of our friends in Maine, who, alone, (of all the people 
of the northern states,) share with us in the perils and degradations of 
our condition. If not wanting to ourselves, to our high professions, 
and to the sacred cause we have espoused, we shall see well to it that 
this subject does not rest until the fetters forged for our own limbs, 
are beaten into weapons of deliverance for the slave ! We shall see 
well to it, that at least, the state of Ncio York becomes a free state, before 
we take the advice of our enemies and " go to the Souths We shall 
see well to it, that the slave code of " the South " does not come t > 
us ! We shall see well to it that the free citizens of New York, what- 
ever may be their hue, are not carried " to the South " without their 
consent ! We shall see well to it that the writs of habeas corjms and 
homo replegiando, designed to protect our citizens from false arrest, are 
no longer made the instrument o'l ihcir felonious abductioji. We shall 
take care that the Chief Magistracy of our own commercial emporium 
does not become the regular and systematic engine and injplement of 
a series of abductions as nefarious as that of Morgan, that the chief 
mart of our staple productions does not become the mart of the agri- 
culturists who rear them ! And that the owners of sheep and swine, 
from whom a single horn or hoof can not be taken without a jury trial, 
are not themselves liable at any moment of the day or night, to be 
claimed as " goods and chattels personal," and the claim allowed by 
a petty justice, and the husband and father severed from his wife and 



30 



childien, in three brief hours, toUhout the privilege ol a trial by jury . 
Our eUo V citizens who have not yet caught the ;' fanaticism of be- 
e"'ng that " God has made of one blood all nations," .nay neverthe- 
less feel some interest in the question of freedom or slavery in the 
state of New York, when they learn that color is no longer the criterion 
of freedom, and when they are certified that children ot free white pa- 
rens wShout a single drop of African blood in their veins have been 
seized in anon-slav^e-hold.ng.^tateand adjudged mto southern slavery 
in the manner we have described ! , ^ • ^ 

The friends of God and man can have no good reason to repine 
that the dark cloud still resting over our own State, in connection with 
the occurrences of the past year, is, at length forcing upon the a ten- 
ion of our citizens the very topics which ^^ behooves them seriously to 
recrard. If the state of New York ever comes up to the help of the 
Lord against the mighty oppressors of our race we doubt not that the 
auacks'-of her own sttesmen upon her liberties during the past year 
will have been found among the effectual instruments of so salutary 
a change. 

DEVELOPMENTS IN THE CHURCH. 

But there has been nothing in the poMcal aspects and n;'^yfTn^"^^_ 
of the past year so deeply appalling and affectmg, and.yet so richly la 
den with glorious promise, as the astounding disclosures of ^^e same 
period in respect to the moral state and leading influences of the Chr s 
?fan church. Whatever corrupt politicians in.ght do, ^f J ^ ^^ 
rijiht to expect a diflerent course of policy in the leaders of the church. 
If least' n the church and its leaders at the North ? The world had 
fndeed been called to witness "the clergy of all f"---tions a end- 
in^ in a body " at a pro-slavery meeting in Charleston, (b. ^•);^"^;^ 
vnch laAT was proclaimed without a blush, - lending their sanction to 
the proceedings, and adding by their presence to ^he .mpressive char 
acter of the scene." Similar exhibitions at various points of the Sou h 
had been made, previous to the annals of the past year, ^^^^^^J^\'^ 
correct the former impression and unmask the P'-^vious pre en e tha 
ministers and Christians at the South --« desirous of term nang a 
some period not far distant, the existence of domestic slavery in their 
midst. But was it not the general impression a year ago, that^"^. 
leading ecclesiastical influences at the North; that the great body oj 
ofiicial dignitaries in the churches among ourselves were r^otjreparea 
to sanction with their silence such violent exhtbUions «/P'-''-^^«'^;;^,f'". 
trment in their southern brethren ? St.U less to lend th^ t^ie^aul o 
their direct countenance and assistance? AVould it not ha\e uec 

thought an ungenerous suspicion, a -^'^•«l^|-.^^'^^^l''/''''V,r.wr md 
if any aboUtimiist had intimated the possibility that the '»«^^»^'^ /^ 
learri.d mm, the controlling managers, and directing ^"7"*^/;7 „; 
lers of the prominent Christian sects at the North, would have left un 



31 

improved the first favorable opportunity for remonstrating, under such 
circumstances, with their southern friends ? Would it not have been 
held a still more censurable and unchristian jealousy, if any one had 
predicted that the highest pro-slavery demands of slave-holding niinis- 
ters and churches at the South, would have been fully backed up by 
their clerical and Christian brethren at the North? Undoubtedly it 
would. But what are the facts presented by the records of the past 
year? 

THEOLOGICAL LITERATURE THE RELIGIOUS PRESS. 

The Literary and Theological Review has already been quoted as 
teaching that the " radicals " [and under this term it had explicitly in- 
cluded abolitionists,] were ^* justly liable to the highest civil penalties 
and ecclesiastical censures.^^ This almost servile repetition of Gov. 
M'Duffie's denunciation of" death without benefit of clergy," to eve- 
ry abolitionist, was published nearly a year ago. It was made the sub- 
ject of comment at the time, but never from that hour to the present, 
has there appeared, to our knowledge, a single word of explanation, 
disclaimer, regret, defense or apology from the publisher, the writer, 
or either of the patrons of that publication, which records on the list of 
its contributors and patrons, a large number of the leading and influ- 
ential Presbyterian and Congregational divines in the Middle States, 
and in New England. 

Without building too much on this isolated circumstance, let it be 
asked what other developments of the past year have served to throw 
further light on such a singular phenomenon? What religious peri- 
odical, not conducted by an abolitionist, let it be asked, has uttered a 
word of rebuke to the Literary and Theological Review ? Which one 
among them all, has lisped a syllable of dissent? What data then, do 
we find, for inferring a shade of difference in sentiment between the 
leading ecclesiastical influences of the North, and the " clergy of all 
denominations who lent their sanction " to the " impressive " exhibi- 
tion at the South ? 

PRESBYTERIAN GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 

The General Assembly of the Presbyterian church convened at 
Pittsburgh in May. Previous to its sitting, the demand of the South 
was distinctly beared that, on " the delicate question " it should be si- 
lent. And was it not silent ? What more was demanded by the " cler- 
gy of all denominations " at Charleston, than that the voice of Chris- 
tian abolitionists should be stifled ? What less was done by the Gene- 
ral Assembly of the Presbyterian church than to stifle the remonstran- 
ces of Christian abolitionists ? Wherein did the response of their con- 
duct fall short of a compliance with the demand ? 

METHODIST GENERAL CONFERENCE. 

The General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal church, as- 



32 

seinbled at Cincinnati about the same time. And not only was the 
voice of Christian remonstrance against slavery stifled ; but the op- 
ponents of slavery were subjected to a direct and heavy censure. 

In both these cases, the voice of these ecclesiastical bodies was 
the undivided voice of the North and of the South, except so far as 
dissent was uttered by that portion of the church and ministry leaven- 
ed with the heresy of" modern abolitionism." 

OTHER ECCLESIASTICAL AND CLERICAL BODIES. 

"We might mention, to the same purport, the proceedings of the 
Presbyterian Synod of Philadelphia, and of the Methodist Episcopal 
Conference in New York. The former repeating the common 
charges against the defenders of the poor ; and the latter withholding 
ministerial licenses from all who would not promise to abstain from 
pleading the cause of the needy. We can not forbear to mention, es- 
pecially, the resolutions of the General Associations of Congregation- 
al ministers in Connecticut and Massachusetts, in which, the zeal to 
subserve the " peculiar interests of the South " was so conspicuous as 
to induce the assumption of ecclesiastical powers, never conmiitted to 
those bodies, and never before attempted to be exercised over Congre- 
gational churches in New England, or any protestant denomination in 
America! In these resolutions the 7tiinisters claimed the power ef 
saving " what the churches might do and what they might not do " 
— what preachers or lecturers they might hear, and what they might 
not hear. The passage of these resolutions in Connecticut, was ren- 
dered the more remarkable by the fact that when objected against, on 
the ground that they would tend to encourage mobs against anti-slave- 
ry lecturers, the fact was neither denied nor deprecated by any one 
favorable to their adoption, but the reverend mover, on the contrary, 
very coldly and tauntingly retorted to his clerical brother, (an aboli- 
tionist, who had suggested the objection, and who was almost daily 
exposed to mobs,) that " abolitionists should never be troubled about 
the consequences " ! And this too, from a minister who had claimed 
to be " as much opposed to slavery as any one " ! A minister so of- 
ten abounding with professions of almost assent to the doctrines of 
abolitionism as almost to persuade abolitionists themselves, at times, 
of his friendliness and sincerity! 

Such are some of the astonishing and painful disclosures of the past 
year, in respect to the connection of our leading ecclesiastical inlluen- 
ces at the North, with the Slavery of the South. 

IMPORTANCE OF THESE DISCLOSURES. 

Truly lamentable and alarming as is the state of things in the 
church, as disclosed by these events of the past year, yet a knowledge 
ol this condition, since it does exist, was of the utmost importance to 
the friends of true religion and human freedom throughout the world. 



33 

In no one department of his wonderful Providence, has the Great 
Refuge of the Oppressed appeared more excellent in counsel 
•and mighty in working, than in the suddenness and completeness with 
which he has stripped ofT false disguises, and made manifest those hol- 
low pretenses by which even his own people have been hushed into 
slumber and apathy, in times past. It was only one year ago that 
the abundant profession of real opposition to southern slavery, on the 
part of the leading ecclesiastical influences at the North, was regard- 
ed by the bulk of an honest and confiding community of plain and 
simple-hearted yeomanry and mechanics, as having a creditable 
foundation in fact, in deed and in truth. That illusion has now pass- 
ed away, and it can never return. It has not been by the " unchari- 
table and censorious " accusations of abolitionists that the impression 
has been produced. It has been by the testimony of their ow7i acts. — 
Their course is as well understood now, as that of " their brethren of 
the South." 

MOB AT CINCINNATI. 

Accordingly, it is now found to excite little or no surprise, that of 
the Cincinnati Mobocratic Committee of thirteen, " eight are members 
of different churches of that city, and two of them ministers of the gos- 
pel."* The developments of the past year have fully prepared the 
public mind to expect continued and similar disclosures. And the 
time is not distant, if it be not already come, when at the North as 
well as at the South, there will be but two sides to the question, and no 
man will gain credit for a dissent from the doctrines of M'Duffie, who 
does not openly and boldly take his stand with the despised and pro- 
scribed abolitionists. 

The results of the last great outrage at Cincinnati, are not, as yet, 
perhaps, sufficiently ascertained, to warrant our tracing them with pre- 
cision : nor is it known with certainty, whether those outrages 
have yet terminated. We can, however, see enough to furnish us 
with lessons of instruction, of admonition, and of hope. 

ITS MORAL causes AND CONNECTIONS. 

In many respects, the late catastrophe at ^Cincinnati, may be ca'i- 
sidcred as the natural, and almost inevitable result of the movemc!nts 
already noticed. From the violent proceedings in Utica, a yea? ago, 
to the scenes of the last few weeks in Cincinnati, there has Veen an 
unbroken chain of moral causes and effects. The instigators of the 
riots in Utica a year ago, were known to have been in constant cor- 
respondence with members of Congress at the South. The agita- 
tions in Congress, last winter, were produced, and kept alive by the 



* Vide statement of Jamss G. Birney, in his Cincinnati Philanthropist of Sep- 
tsmbtr 2nh, 1836. 



34 

same class of men. The failure of legislative action in Congress was 
avenged by the adoption of Mr. Pinckney's Report. By its adoption, 
the House of Representatives fully approved and indorsed the mobo- 
cratic pro-slavery proceedings at Utica, at New York, at Boston 
and elsewhere. They " rejoiced that the great body of the peo- 
ple of the non-slave-holding states," [as they falsely styled the 
aristocratic opposers of human rights,] "have come forward, as 
they have done, in the true spirit of American patriotism, to sustain 
their constitutional obligations to their southern brethren, and arrest 
the disturbance of the public peace" !* In other words, they " re- 
joiced" in the apparently successful efforts of a lawless aristocracy to 
establish the lynch code of the South, over (he heads of northern free- 
men ! They rejoiced at the prevalence of efforts which the Market 
House Committee of Cincinnati have had the honesty to confess, were 
revolutionary and insurrectionary — in violation of the constitution — 
and in defiance of the sovereignty of the people ! Strange, indeed, 
■would it be, if scenes of lawless violence should not be witnessed 
among a people whose legislators had eulogized them as evincing the 
" true spirit of patriotism ! " 

But other causes have had their share in producing and encourag- 
ing the late riots in Ohio. If there were those who could read the 
gag-law of Lane Seminary, without looking forward to the riots of 
Cincinnati, there will be few who can read the accounts of those riots, 
without sending their minds back to the prescriptive edicts of the Sem- 
inary. If professors of theological science could not tolerate the re- 
provers of sin, lest their presence should subtract from the southern 
patronage of their Seminary, what reason was there to expect that the 
idolators of wealth would long tolerate similar reproofs, when it en- 
dangered their southern custom and their worldly gain 1 And if the 
Methodist General Conference at Cincinnati could pass heavy cen- 
sures against abolitionists ; and allow, without reproof, its clerical 
members to " wish their abolition brethren in heaven "(!) what marvel, 
that a minister of the same church, in the same city, should be found 
at the head of a mob for destroying an anti-slavery press ? 

THE DENffiUMENT OF THE DRAMA. 

There is something in the riot at Cincinnati that seems to wind up 
at le^st one long act ot the drama of pro-slavery etfort, in such a man- 
ner aa to identity and connect the ditferent actors of the three past 
years itio one scene ! The politician, the divine, the slaveholder, 
the d()ugt,face, the merchant, the demagogue, the mayor, the black- 
guard, the plotter, the operative — these, at other riots, have played their 
separate parts, and olten at such a cautious distance from each other, 
as to make it dillicidt to connect them in the infamy. But at Cincin- 
nati, they all mellud into one common mass of worthy amalgamation. 
. * 

* Vide Piuckney's Report. 



35 

Xl stands a connecting link between the horrid lyncb-law scenes of the 

South, and the genteel, smooth, decent and plausible anti-abolition as- 
semblatres of the North. The meetings of reverend Doctors and 
honorable Judges and pious Senators in New-York city, in 1S33 and 
"4, did not condescend to mingle personally and openly in the rabble 
that bid a price for the head of one abolitionist, :and burned the fumi- 
lure of another in the streets. The statesmen and divines of Massa- 
chusetts who fanned the flame of popular violence in Boston, did not 
stay to trample down the anti-slavery sigri-board, with their own feetf 
or fix the halter round the body of their victim. At Cincinnati, all this 
fastidious decorum was laid aside. Yet, editors in New York, and 
Albany, have copied the most virulent ebullitions of the Cii^ciniiati 
press, without the least disapprobation. Not only so. the general ap- 
lathy and almost silence of the northern religious press in general, (not 
imder the direct influences of abolitionism,) in relation to the riot-«t 
Cincinnati, and the persecution of Dr. Nelson, has been such as tm 
Seave no reasonable doubt on which side the sympathies of fbeir Cixa- 
iTolling influences have been enlisted, 

A PHENOMENON- 

Tn the persecution of Mr. Birney, the world is likewise presented 
with the phenomenon of an excitement -against a citizen 'of the South 
who had emancipated his slaves, on the part of the citiEens of a. noif 
slave-holding state, who have been claimed to be heartily opposed to 
the slave system! The acknowledged mildrvess, -courtesy and /Jeco- 
Tum of the victim selected for this signal exhibition of auti-abolitioa 
fury and rage, is a circumstance that must forever put tto shame the 
^pretension that abolitionists are opposed, only on accoimt of (the ;tin- 
ichristian temper they have indulged, the abusive (epithets they ha"v© 
^sed, and the wjong manner in which they have ap|kraacbed their op- 
ponents, 

■OTHE-E ATSVATiTTAGEa. 

Among the advantages secured to the cause of freed am by the mad- 
3iess of pro-slavery violence in Cincinnati, it will be safe to r-eckoa 
the position into which the people of Ohio are thrown in relation to 
'=the press of Mr. Birney- If Ohio is to remain a fr«e state, iif berccxa- 
:stitution is to go for any thing except mere waste paper, if liberty of 
4he press and freedom of speech, are to be <;ounted ^aroang the rights 
of her citizens, then the press of Mr. Birney «iust be sustained. It 
'Can not ultimately fall without dragging down the State of Ohio, .as a. 
free state, in its train. It is known too, that a re-actioB has already 
been produced ; that a new impulse has been given to anti-slavery 
discussion ; that many of the publications scattered by the mob, were 
scattered to be perused, and have already taken root and barae :fimit 
ft© perfection. 



36 

JUDGE LAWLESS — HIS TUTORS AND HIS OPPONENTS^ 

The St. Louis Observer, within a few weeks past has been drivefl 
from a slave to a free state for the crime of dissenting from the doc- 
trine of Judge Lawless, in his charge to the Grand Jury — a doctrine 
which sanctions crime, whenever committed by a mob of" gentlemen 
of property and standing." It is remarkable that this doctrine of a 
slave-holding judge, is only an abstract theory, derived, evidently, 
from the recent practical exhibitions of municipal policy in the once 
orderly and law-abiding city of Boston ! Not less instructive is the 
fact, that while the public presses in Boston, (with one or two honora- 
ble exceptions,) were found ready to commend the practical operation 
of the doctrine of Judge Lawless in their own city of the Pilgrims, 
there was found an editor, even in a slave state, who would sooner en- 
counter the horrors of lynch law, than let the mere abstract assertion 
of the doctrine pass unrebuked ! Verily, the last have been found 
first, and the first last ; and while the false prophets of despotism at 
the North have been predicting unanimous and undivided hostility to 
to liberty among their dear " brethren of the South" — the Lord is ap- 
parently reserving to himself his thousands, even where Satan's seat 
is, who will not bow the knee to the image of Baal ! 

A HINT TO PRINTERS AND EDITORS. 

It will be strange indeed if the lynching of two American presses 
within a few months past, does not teach the conductors of the press, 
generally, that the safety and independence of the press, every where, 
can not consist with the existence of slavery, and can not be maintain- 
ed without the consistent and constant advocacy of inalienable human 
rights. 

THE AGE OF PERSECUTION RETURNING. 

The persecution of Dr. David Nelson, and his flight from Missouri 
to a free state, would of itself, be sufficient to render the annals of the 
past year memorable, in all coming time. The story of cruel and 
wicked persecutions in past ages has been read by the Christians of 
our own day with a wonder almost bordering on incredulity and doubt. 
That we, who live in the " nineteenth ctntmy " of the Christian era, and 
in the land, boasting above all others, the name of a free Christian re- 
public, should ever be called to witness a repetition of such dreadl'ul 
scenes, would have been thought, of all predictions, the most incndi- 
ble, a few years ago. We have been taught by the events of the past 
year, that Christians of the nineteenth century in America, have not 
been sooner called to sutler persecution, merely because their want of 
Chistian faithfulness had not suffered them to deserve the honor, or 
present the occasion ! The unity of feeling and sentiment between 
the leading influences of the churches at the North and at the South, 



37 



has been rendered signally manifest in the case of Dr Nelson 
Uhen that eminent servant of Jesus Christ desired, a little more than 
a year ago, an opportunity to deliver an important message of divine 
truth m Boston, not a pulpit in that proud metropolis was opened at 
his approach ! And when he was afterwards called to wander home 
less, destitute afflicted, tormented, at the South, not a note of Christian 
sympathy and friendship from the Christian ministry of the North 
(except from those lying under the same ban of proscription with h^m 
sell ) has been beared breathing upon the passing breeze 

But the time would fail us to recount all the wonderful providences 
of the past year connected with the objects we are pursuing. We mu/t 
hastily mention a few more, and draw to a close. 

ARKANSAS AND MICHIGAN— BLIND COMPROMISE. 

Another slave State, during the past year, has been aHrl^^ ♦ 
National Union A free State? by wa'y of'counterpore and comlm' 
ise was said to have been put into the opposite sea e hnttht ^^ 
upon W.W which the^itizensof fhe propot^r^ f S a7e h'^ 
thought proper to reject The promised co'^mterpoise ther fo e his 
proved a delusion. Arkansas, unfettered with anv rnn^ ti! [ ' 
ceived the fraternal hand, and sits down at o 'r couLlltf'i/'? "' 
remains still in the antechamber, and we shall listen to h^r knoctfi? 
when she consents that we shall apply the shears to her locks S " f J 
never struck a compromise with slavery, without becom^n. . 1 . ^ 
the bargain. Such losses may be transmuted fn^nT.^^ u"". ^^ 
teach us lessons of true wisdom. "^"'"'"^"^ "^'° g^'"' ^hen they 

GENERAL PROGRESS OF ABOLITIONISM. 

The general progress of our cause throughout the co..nh- a ■ 
the past year}, has been onward. We shall not not nf?^' ^"""^ 
It in detail. Those who would witness it! mus i" d th '"''' '' 'T' 
tory, ,n our weekly journals. The spiri3 anmu, P^.^«'"g his- 
parent Society at New York in Mav Z t n "'"^"^^'^^ «^ the 

Anti-Slavery Convention a^^B^tVaf o irf^^orert'"%^- •^• 
anmversary of the N. H. State Society at CW 1 il t "^'"'''"^ 
numerous celebrations of anti-slaverv sorWi. u -^""e— 'he 

and 1st of August-the weekly^^^^^nTsT/n w^^octieff ^' •^."'^ 
the present move.nent for a state society in Peimsvlvaml u'^r 

a convention to ^rm a State, or Territorial, societv in mm' '"" ^"^ 
preparation for the first annual meeting of he S^ c ^^'^higan-the 
Island-the special meeting of the vilnt g^ "^"1"^'"^^ '" ^^^^^ 
day on which our own ann^ual .meeting Ts as ^^;;"'^' ^^e very 
many other passing movements that might be ne^ioned~f' ''''^ 
indications that abolitionism is neither rlli ,' ^''^ '=^^^'■'"8' 

scale of pecuniary expendit r i " ^ Tause t rni^i. "t""'"^' ^h? 
-g wants and exigencies. Our fnendrit tl/e^ Etrt^y^gr; 



3d 

Hundreds, where they had been accustomed to give by tens. We, iil 
this State, must emulate their example. AVe should do more. For 
we are later in the work, and hitherto, our contributions have been on 
a much less liberal scale than theirs. 

EUROPE. 

Abroad as well as at home, the interests of human nature, and the 
standard ot^ pure Christianity are, together, rising* British abolitionists 
are extending to us cordially the fraternal hand. Illustrious philan- 
thropists in France are beginning to do the same. Public sentiment 
in Glasgow, at Edinburgh, at Birmingham and in London, is com- 
ing up to the summit level of Christian duty. The attempts to mis- 
lead British Christians begin to re-act with great energy. The stand 
of the English Baptists approaches the purity of the apostolic times, 
and indicate the course that American as well as European Christians 
must follow — faithful testimony — solemn admonition, and final separa- 
tion from the " Man of Sin." 

THE WEST INDIES, 

The West India experiment is all that we could expect ; its testi- 
monv is even more emphatic Oian could have been hoped. It stands 
a livinfT commentary upon our doctrines — our measures, and our plans. 
Every day adds to its weight and to its clearness. It refutes every 
cavil, and ans« ers every objection. The vexations and abuses under 
the apprenticeship system in Jamaica contrast admirably with the 
perfect contentment and prosperity resulting from the instant and un- 
conditional emancipation of Antigua. Jt annihilates all honest and 
rational adherence to any, to even the most refined and cautious sys- 
tem of amelioration — of preparation — of gradualism — as a measure 
of prudence, convenience, advantage, or policy, — in preference to the 
full and unconditional, and instant emancipation we propose. Never 
has there been a more striking providential illustration of the great 
truth that the most full and immediate righteousness, most fully and 
instantly exalteth a nation. And the experiment under its varying 
circumstances throughout the Islands has been more than sufficient to 
silence forever, with all reasonable men, the strange prediction of niur* 
der, devastation and w-ant, as the result of justice, mercy, and the 
cheerful labor of the free. 

CONCLUSION. SLAVERY STILL EXISTS. 

In conclusion, we are compelled to recognize the sad, the disgrace- 
ful, the heart-rending fact that two and a half millions of native Ameri- 
cans are still pining in bondage — held as mere goods and chattels — 
denied the protection of law — plundered of their lawful earnings — 
herded together like the beasts that perish — denied the sanctities of 
marriage — forbidden the conjugal, the filial, the parental relations — 



39 



prohibited from opening the scriptures which are able to niake them 
wise unto salvation. For although our labors, directed chietly to a 
future and general result-have not been left wholly without the witness 
of present and delicious fruit-although the conversions at the South 
to our doctrines, are believed to have produced the manumission 
already of more slaves than could have been purchased, at markeJ 

of hi/ ^""'' f"'''""' ''^^ °"'" ^-^P«"d''"'es, yet the annual increase 
ot bondmen exceeds immeasurably the ratio of manumission. 

OUR WARFARE— ITS EXTENT AND ITS UNITY. 

nnnlrf ! ^r"" ''T^';'^"^ ^^^* ^^^^ emanctpation of the ens^aved-^^■h\ch 
constituted, in the begmning, the sole object of anti-slavery effirt, 
has, in the process ot the contest, become only an mnV/inn the 
stn.ggle, which IS now found to involve alike the fJ^eedom of he white 

afof tetouth!""^ ^'^"''*^°" ''■ '^"^ '"""'^^' °^ '^' ^"^^h ^'^ ^^'' 
The remark without question, is correct. Yet let it not be said 
hat we have changed our ground-that we have swerved from our 
onesrngle ohject-x^^t we are forgettmg the emancipation of the en- 
slaved, to mingle m political and ecclesiastical strife. It is not so 
Uur warfare from the>^^ has been against SLAVERY; the slavery 
tlXT T, ^^"^'^-fS--«tthis same slavery, still. F om 
the/r.^ we declared ourselves pledged for the liberties of all men 
roithout respect to color. We declare ourselves ^^.. pledged .^^; 
It our opponents duped by theiro wn slanders, believe us so'" reckle ' ly '' 

brethren, a. to place no value upon the liberties of twelve millions of 
our y^hue brethren, including ourselves, and our children, the eo. was 
their own and not ours. If they believed Me should silently ee a 
a nation of Ireemen enslaved, in order to show our regard for the^slaves 
^vhom a nation of iVeemen alone can make free. the> only fill inu> the 
en-or of measurmg our policy by their own. It is Ma. policy and not 
ours which requires silence and inaction, when the liberties^of a free 
people are in penl. To the true friend of the colored man, the ca c 

fied w t"h hir^ T'l "'' '^'^""l' ^^"•' ^^^^"- 1^^ ^"di ,t iden i. 
hed with his own freedom, with the freedom of his children of his 

"TZr\:'- ^" '"'''• r^bolitionists began their worl. .^^ '^ - 

ITS PRINCIPAL FIELD. 

«n5"fi ^^^^°"gh it is for great and universal principles, rather than for 
specific and local results that we contend, and although, like the buid 

hand a?; ""\"' '"" '^^" '''''' '^ -^'^ ^he^^-we w tl t 
ih. h ^A f^'^ ^^^ ''"^P"'^ ^^^ ^«^<^"^'^ ^^i'hthe other, yet doubtless 
the best defense we can make for our own liberties-'n^o! negrecting 



40 

the use of collateral aid — is to plead for the liberties of our brother — 
our enslaved brother — our colored brother — our degraded, and down- 
trodden and slandered brother ! This it is, that places our principles 
in bold relief, and draws out their most searching and ultra tendencies. 
This it is that purifies our love of liberty from the dross of selfishness 
and commends it to every man's conscience in the sight of God. This 
it is that takes hold of the heart of God — of the law of God — of the 
promise — of the wisdom — of the truth — of the omnipotence of God. 
Never are the liberties of individuals or of communities so secure as 
when they plead for the liberties of the oppressed — never are they 
exalted so highly as when they stoop down the most humbly to identify 
themselves with the most degraded victims of oppression and pride, 
remembering them that are in bonds as bound with them ; enduring 
the cross and despising the shame, for the glorious hope set before 
them I 

OUR LEADER OUR DUTY AND SURE TRIUMPH. 

And well, indeed, may they do "^this, when they lift up their eyes, 
and behold the councils and the hand of God, as they have been dis- 
played in the wonderful movements and astonishing developments of 
the past year ! What arm, but that of a God could have wrought for 
abolitionists, the glorious deliverances of the past year ? What better 
commentary can we need, upon the declarations, the precepts, the 
threatenings, the promises and the predictions of the Scriptures, con- 
cerning the sin of oppression, and the duty of pleading for the oppress- 
ed, than are found in the providential dispensations of the past year? 
If any doubts could have existed in our minds, a year ago, vvhether 
the instructions and promises of the Scrijjfures on this subject, were 
indeed from the Maker and Governor of men, would they not all be 
dispelled, as the mist before the sun, in the bright light shed around us 
by the events of the past year ? Tf then, God be for us, who can be 
against us 1 If he works with us, who shall work our overthrow ? 
If He beckons us onward, who shall bid us retreat or stand idle ? — 
If the events of every week mark out the footprints of His victorious 
march, shall we be fearful to follow 1 Like a pillar of a cloud by day 
and a pillar of fire by night, are the precepts and the providences of 
God, to all those who have the wisdom to study them and walk in 
them. He that hath ear to hear, let him hear. He that is wise of heart, 
let him know and understand. And he that hath a heart, a tongue, a 
pen, a hand, a finger, a mite, or a benevolent desire, let him pray, and 
labor, and give, till alms and labors and prayers «hall be lost in bound- 
less fruition, and glorious rest, and never-ending thanksgivings. 



4i 



ADDRESS TO THE ABOLITIONISTS OF THE STATE 

OF NEW YORK : — As reported by a Committee appointed by the 

first Annual Meeting of the New-York Stale Anti-Slavery Society, of 

which Ccmmiltce Alvan Stewart^ Esq., was Chairman; and was 

unanimously adopted. 

To rescue the helpless, to resist oppression, to elevate the despised, 
to combat despotism, to instruct and soften the conscience of the mas- 
ter ; to make free, exalt, enlighten and invigorate the faculties of the 
slave, stand before the world as the objects of prominent pursuit by 
the New-York State Anti-Slavery Society. 

What object so sublime, as that which abates the sufferings of man 
as a physical being-, while it amplifies the undying powers, makes the 
individual conscious of the greatness of his origin, the superiority of 
his heaven-descended lineage and his ultimate destiny beyond the 
oppressions of time^ and the cruelties of a transitory world. 

What is worthy the pursuit of a tenant of immortality, except what 
may place his own body and that of his neighbor in the best attitude to 
have the soul illuminated with the knowledge of itself, of its Author, 
its obligations to itself, to man, and to God. 

But the question is asked every day, who is my neighbor 1 Every 
human being, on whom the sun rises or sets, who feels the cold of win- 
ter, or the heat of summer, whether he is seated on the throne of power 
or languishes in the damps of the dungeon, whether he is fed from 
the table of abundance, or eats his mouldy crust under the shadow of 
a wall, whether he be the owner of the rice, cotton and sugar fields 
of the sultry South, or the naked, scar-marked, chain-loaded, whip- 
beaten, under-fed, and unpaid slave who cultivates them. 

No matter where he received his birth ; whether idolatry has forg- 
ed its wretched chains for his mind, whether he be educafe'd to lift his 
hand on the solitudes of Africa, to strip others of what they have ; no 
matter how great the debasement of mind, even if lost in (he mazes of 
Confucius' infidelity, no matter how that mind has been defiled by the 
rust of superstition, in a succession of ages, no matter with what fear- 
ful orgies of the midnight blaze and flowing blood, the sons of Chris- 
tendom have robbed the black man of himself ; no matter how solemn 
the form by which tlie planter of the South, by bargain and sale, by 
written instruments drawn in conformity to the highwayman's code, 
may make out his title ; yes, let him show his bond for human flesh, 
no matter how bloody legislation may attempt to create title deeds, 
hy which man may be sold to man ; no matter how solemn the form 
of the last will of the dotard, trembling on the confines of the grave who 
endeavors to bind the slave to another who has served him through 
life's brief couj-se ; no matter how often he may begin his will, " In the 

6 



42 

name of God, amen." — Solemn mockery ! God-insulting adjuration ? 
Yes, let their Southern lawyers bring their 40,000 recorded wills, let 
us behold these men, scoffers now, in their noiseless graves, binding 
500,000 human beings, to eternal slavery, calling on God with an 
" amen " — "so might it be," to ratify what might raise a blush on a 
ruined archangel's cheek ; no matter for ali this casuistry, this net- 
work of fraud, this inversion of truth ; no matter for all these things, 
the slave is still a man, our brother, and an inheritor of Eternity. — 
He is still the man who went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell 
among thieves ; and this Society is the Samaritan, who will take him 
up, bind his wounds, and restore him to himself. Yes, it any thing 
makes one nearer, and dearer, and more of a neighbor than another, it 
is because his helplessness and misery demand it, and we must obey 
the Heavenly mandate. To enlarge the compass of action beyond 
the efforts of individual benevolence, in behalf of the poor Americarv 
slave, and form this Society, one year ago, brought together 600 of the 
choice spirits of this State, the sons of humanity, from the borders of 
Lake Erie, the hills of Montauk, the mountains of Delaware, the 
waters of Champlain, the banks of the Hudson, and the shores of 
Ontario. 

American Slavery is a pyramid of crime — a death shade thrown over 
this guilty land. Though we were driven from this temple of the Most 
High, dedicated to Him " who is no respecter of persons," by a mob 
of native Americans — whose principles on that occasion, were the 
same as those taught in the school of Dante, Marat, and Robespierre, 
yet we have reason to thank the Source of all good, while these ene- 
mies of God and man intended it for our harm, it resulted in our good,^ 
in adding many thousands to our numbers. Under the sanction ol 
the principles, embodied in the Constitution of our Society, we are as- 
sembled in the same house, a second time, to publish to our country- 
men, the secrets and movements of our Society, with our future inten- 
tions. These principles and intentions are inscribed on the hearts of 
the benevolent, and make their home in the temple of eternal Justice. 
They are principles which are not depending upan the ebullitions of a 
floating, unthinking mob, who will shout hosannas to-day, and cruci- 
fixion to-morrow ; whose minds are imfixed as the whirlwind, one day 
insulting Heaven and dishonoring earth with liendish shouts over pros- 
trate humanity, while the next, they build temples to canonize the ashes- 
of the victims whom they have immolated, and then place in the 
highest niche of human remembrance, that man as philanthropist, when 
dead, who, when living, was loaded with obloquy, and covered with 
reproach. These principles bind in holy harmony a band of philan- 
thropists, who deride the scorn of the haughty, who love the lowest be- 
ing invested with a never dying-mind, who move forward and upward 
against the descending stream of popular violence, carrying consola- 
tion and deliverance to the prisoner — una wed by thf bold front of de- 



48 

ilance, but upheld and cheered by the rewards of the final judgment ; 
when the master and slave, the scorner and the scorned, the oppressor 
and the oppressed, shall stand up for a final analysis of character, be- 
fore that Judge, at whose presence the heavens and earth will flee 
away. 

To lend energy to truth, to give confidence to virtue, to be number- 
ed with the feeble, to take seats with the humble, to divide our substance 
with the hungry, never to forsake the dumb, never to cease display- 
ing the slave 's wrongs to this guilty age, always to continue haunting 
the imagination of this slave-grinding nation, with the crimes of the 
past, the wickedness of the present, and the accountability in the future; 
while at the same time we implore the Parent of the Universe, to hear 
the cries of the millions of his helpless children, which are ascending 
day and night from the slave-cursed fields of southern despotism ; are 
objects lying near our hearts. 

VIEW OF SLAVERY. 

Let us take a view of slavery, as it appears in masses, either for the 
purpose of seeing the amount of robbery, committed on slaves of this 
land, as a question of money ; or the amount of brutal chastisement 
inflicted to obtain the labor performed: — and then let us examine briefly 
the constitutional power of Congress, to abolish the internal Ameri- 
can slave trade, now prosecuted with most of the horrors, which ac- 
companied the old African Slave-trade. 

There are at least 500,000 slaves in the slave states, each of whom, 
at the present prices of produce, earns over and above his wretched 
subsistence $200 per annum, or one hundred millions of dollars. The 
other 2,000,000 of slaves we put down as earning no more than their 
miserable subsistence, which is, beyond a doubt, greatly undervaluing 
their labors. This calculation leaves the slaveholders in the receipt 
of a nett income of one hundred millions of dollars, not one dollar of 
which belongs to the slaveholder, but every dollar ought to be the 
slaves'. To obtain this one hundred millions of dollars from the poor 
slave there are inflicted at least, on an average, twenty lashes or blows 
on the person of each slave, which would not be inflicted, were they 
not slaves, amounting to fifty millions of lashes, on the two and a half 
millions of slaves, or in other words, a blow is struck for every two 
dollars earned by the slave. The fifty millions of lashes, is the return 
the slaveholder makes as a compensation for the $100,000,000 earn- 
ed for the masters by the poor slaves. 

The united robberies, piracies, forgeries, counterfeit-money-passing, 
and thefts of the whole world for one year will not equal the sum of 
which the American slaves are robbed annually. The American 
slave has been robbed every day, for 200 years gone by, by a people 
whose chivalry consists in the generosity of that act. The fifty mil- 
lions of lashes struck on the American slaves, (which would not be ii 



44 

they were free) exceed all the acts of cruelty of the civilized and bar- 
barian world beside. Yes, the twelve slave states of America are the 
head quarters of cruelty for the world ; the residence of duelling, the 
native land of Lynch law, where its professors reside and its scholars 
practice. These states are the asylum of piracy made respectable 
by the sanctions of law, where immortal minds are ruined, iii the 
wholesale, by constitutional edicts ; where the marriage contract is ex- 
changed for wandering adultery. This is the land dedicated to amal- 
gamation, where 500, UUO mulatloes testify the aifection and honorable 
love existing, between the master, and the female slave. This is the 
land where fathers sell children, and brothers and sisters, sell brothers 
and sisters. This is the same land whose clergy have found a curi- 
ous edition of the Bible, sustaining these acts upon the authority of 
divine commands. These are the lands, vvhere the instinct of the 
blood hound is improved by pursuing, overtaking, and revelling in hu- 
man flesh. This is the chivalrous land, the inhabitants of which, for 
fear of insurrection, are pillowed on guns, pistols, and swords ! Here 
are the great man, woman, and children, flesh markets of the world. — 
Immortal souls are the merchandize of the auction room. This is the 
land where Abolitionists are threatened, defamed, and put to death. 
This is the land which threatens the dissolution of the confederacy. 
This is the Land of SLAVES. 

WHAT HAVE ABOLITIONISTS DONE 1 

But it is sometimes asked what have Abolitionists done to terminate 
abuses so shocking, and outrages so insupportable ? If any cause 
could excite self congratulation, and stimulate to noble and expanded 
exertions, in behalf of the future, it is the cause of Abolition. What 
cause ever before in less than three years, in the face of obloquy, and 
a nation's opposition, was found able to organize between six and seven 
hundred societies, comprising the most elevated piety, the warmest 
philanthropy, the most distinguisned talents, with untiring industry. 

In the space of three years, the attention of several State Legisla- 
*ures, have been awakened. Almost a fifth of the time of the last 
Jongress of the nation, was consumed in the discussion of the lost 
rights of the slave ; and the gaze of the world has been fixed on this 
great struggle of suffering humanity. 

If the cause of Abolition had secured nothing more, than such uni- 
versal attention, and such formidable combinations for its suppression, 
it would have been ground for the most devout ihanktulness. But 
this is not all. The Abolitionists have measured swords with the 
slave-holder, on several great questions, in their infancy, with entire 
success. 



46 



THE SLAVEHOLDERS FOILED. 



The slaveholders of 1835 and 1836, demanded, 

1st. An expression of Congress, that it was unconstitutional to 
abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, and the Territories of the 
nation. But the slaveholders were foiled : — Congress refused to utter 
ter that wicked sentiment ; and that refusal is equivalent to a verdict, 
exactly the reverse of what the slaveholders insolently demanded ; 
and it is an acknowledgement that Congress has the power to abolish 
slavery in the District and Territories. 

2d. The slaveholders demanded that Congress should not receive 
the petitions of Abolitionists ; but Congress decided they would re- 
ceive them. 

3d. The South asked Congress by law to gag the press, by a sys- 
tem of espionage to confer on the 10, COO Deputy Post Masters a 
power to peep and pry into every secret that passed through the mails, 
so as to exclude all anti-slavery written or printed communications, 
from a passage mto the slave states. But this bill. Congress, after sol- 
emn deliberation, and long discussion, refused to pass, but passed, in 
favor of abolitionists, a law, which is the converse of the slaveholders' 
defeated bill. In the 32d section of the new post office law of last 
winter Congress has made it a penalty not exceeding $500, and im- 
prisonment not more than six months, and a removal from office, to- 
gether with a disqualification to hold, forever thereafter, the office of 
Post Master, for delaying any letter, newspaper, or package, on its 
passage, to its destination, or for refusing to transmit, or deliver said 
letter, paper or package, to its proprietor. This is all abolitionists 
could ask, in order to redress such outrages as those of Charleston 
and New York were last year. In fact this law is powerful in its 
consequences, and no postmaster will dare delay the passage or deliv- 
ery of the most "violent" anti-slavery pamphlet or newspaper, a single 
minute, short of forfeiting his office, and subjecting himself to the pen- 
alty of a dungeon. 

No abolitionist could have asked for a sterner law for his protection 
than Congress made in reply to the slave-holders' insolent demand. 

4th. The governors of many of the slave states insolently demand- 
ed, by messages, and special communications, directed to the free 
states of the North, that the Legislatures of these states, should vio- 
late their own constitutions, and set at nought their Magna Chartas, 
and pass laws forbidding the existence of Anti-Slavery Societies, sup- 
press speeches, or writings against slavery. But the free states re- 
fused to comply with one iota of these demands. 

6th. Southern Legislatures have by resolutions, made the same 
request as their governors and met with no better success. 

6th. The South have done homage to the abolition sentiment at the 
North, by keeping their slaves at home and not insulting our feelings, 



46 

by their presence the Bummer past, in such numbers as formerly. Two 
reasons have operated on them to do this : 1st. They felt ashamed 
to acknowledge themselves slaveholders by such palpable evidence. 
2d. The fears of the slave's escape, or that the slave having been 
brought here by his master, the slave became free, the moment he 
touched our soil. For the law for delivering up slaves, applies to fugi- 
tives, and not to slaves brought here by their masters ; all of whom are 
free, the moment their feet rest upon the soil of any free state, unless 
the slave is registered according to law. 

7th. The decision of th( Supreme Court of Massachusetts, one of 
the most distinguished courts for legal talents to be found in this or any 
other civilized land, has decided the past summer that all slaves brought 
into that state by their masters become instantly free : which proposi- 
tion or decision is equally true of all the other free states. If this 
decision is not correct, a slaveholder might bring a gang of slaves with 
him here for six months at a time, and thus trample on the laws of the 
free states, as well as insult the feelings of all good men. This he 
can not do without permission of the state given him by law. 

The decision of the Court of Massachusetts will be found to be, 
with the argument which supports it, an important bulwark of Ameri- 
can liberty. If this decision be not sound law, this monstrous conse- 
quence must follow, that a free state would allow a foreigner or a 
citizen of another state, privileges denied to its own citizens. 

It has always been considered in the law of nations, that great 
comity was shown the citizen of another state, if he was put on an 
equal footing with the citizens of the country whose hospitality he 
enjoyed : But to allow a Virginian to be followed by a train of tremb- 
ling slaves, to this state would be not only to place that individual above 
our own citizens, but also above the laws and institutions of the state 
itself. But as self-evident as this proposition seems, its assertion at 
this time, from so high a source, can not but be regarded as one of the 
most cheering evidences in favor of the principles of abolition and 
humanity ; and, in fact, it may be regarded as one of the great land- 
marks, in the noble career of -universal €viancipatio7i. 

The year 1836 will ever be remembered as a year in which Chris- 
tian philanthropists in Great Britain extended their noble hands to our 
aid, in the most dignified expressions of kindness and sympathy. ^Ve 
can not but regard the friendship of the great, the good, and the power- 
ful in England at this time as one of the most cheering circumstances 
to arouse the desponding, and sustain the true hearted, amidst the per- 
secutions of slaveholders, or the insults of their apologists. Nothing 
has more employed the attention of good men in England the sum- 
mer past than in learning the nature and horrors of American slavery. 
To such a point of detestation has the slaveholder sunk in English 
estimation, that it is believed none of the first men of the southern 
states, who arc slaveholders, would l)e admitted into good English 



47 

aociefy, where the fact was known, any sooner than persoius who were 
smugglers, or engaged in the African slave trade. 

We should be much surprised, if the same course of treatment in 
less than seven years should not be pursued by the best class of society 
in the free states towards the slaveholders. 

It may be laid down, as indisputable from the foregoing statements^ 
that the slaveholders have been driven from every position, they en- 
deavored to occupy, and routed most disgracefully, on their own chosen 
field of battle. Yes, they have been beaten at all points from their 
high-handed and wicked attempts to cut off the slave's chance of 
escape from his chains. 

SOUTHERN CHIVALRY. 

Perhaps it is wrong not to award what is even due to a chivalrous 
slaveholder. It must not be denied, and justice compels us to admit, 
that 60 slaveholders in Tennessee, in the summer of 1835, did sur- 
round, take, and arrest Amos Dresser, an abolitionist — a harmless, 
pious,talented young gentleman, traveling through that state — and whip- 
ped him 20 lashes on the naked back, because he was a member of an 
abolition society in Ohio, and then banished him from the state. The 
chivalrous citizens of the State of Georgia, in the year 1836, sur- 
rounded, waylaid, and took a Mr. Kitchell, a citizen of New Jersey, 
a pious youth, a recent graduate of the Theological Seminary at 
Princeton, traveling in the South, on account of infirm health, upon 
the suspicion of being an Abolitionist, (which it is since understood 
he was not) and tarred, feathered, and violently beat him, and expelled 
him from the state. Thus we see how glorious the laurels of chivalry 
appear in the victories won on the fields of Tennessee in 1835, and 
the no less auspicious campaign which filled the cup of Georgia's 
renown in 1836. 

The slaveholder the summer past, has been following his usual chival- 
rous pursuits — the recapturing of fugitive slaves in the free states — - 
and in some instances has been successful in reducing to a second 
bondage, those who had been^ beyond chains and whips ten and fifteen 
years, by the aid of those supple instruments of tyranny — ^the well paid 
constable and justice of peace, whose consciences are more alive to an 
obedience to the requisition of the act of Congress for retaking fugitive 
slaves, than they are to the loudest calls of humanity. Yes, had the 
slave the same sum of money to pay the magistrate and constable for 
his escape, which the master pays for his judicial kidnapping, few fugi- 
tive slaves would ever cross Mason & Dixon's line a second time. 

Let the finger of this world's scorn be pointed to that officer, judi- 
cial or ministerial, who shall lend himself to the slaveholder to reduce 
a man a second time to bondage, who will for the slaveholder's gold 
basely convert the writ of habeas corpus, the slave's passport to freedom, 
into a writ of eternal imprisonment, by which a slave is taken from the 



48 

CUSloily of himself aiij equal hv.vs, and tlclivered to an enraged and 
lawless inastcr, from whom death can only discharge him. 

COLOR IN A QUANPRARY ! 

The amalgamation compound of the Anglo-Saxon and African 
blood adds annually 15,00() human beings to the slave po|)ulation in 
the shape of mulattoes, as a triumph on the part of the slaveholder over 
the supposed dignity of the white man, by making an intermediate 
landmark between the extreme casts. 

The slav(!holder talks of sending the manumitted slave to Africa as 
the land of his origin. What will he do with the mulattoes? Upon 
that principle, the poor mulatto nmst sj)end one year in Africa, and then 
one year in England) Ireland, Scotland, France, Germany, or where- 
ever, in Europe, the ancestor of his white American father came from ; 
so this compound of Europe and Africa must spend his life in a per- 
petual |)ilgrimage, in going from one continent to another, dividing and 
spending the remainder of his existence in the pursuit of the countries 
of his ancestor's origin. In fact, if the friends of the argument of 
hunting up the countries of remote origin of one's race, should think 
it too inconvenient for the mulatto, perhaps their humanity might be 
induced to allow them some intermediate island, as a half-way house, 
where they might rest themselves equidistant t'rom ancestral origin. 

But what mulatto in the United States, who has come to the years 
of discretion, but has pitied the mother slave, ftho bore him, and cursed 
his white father. Yes, cursed him for his or her existence ; cursed 
him for giving him a body to ruin a soul ; cursed him for this body in 
which the immortal soul withers! Oh! might the mulatto slave cry 
out, " what ! can I thank my white father lor a body, which is not my 
own, which is but a thing! thank him for that body which is exposed 
to every indignity, blows and abuse. Tbank him for that body which 
my n.\thor, my brothers or my sisters, my nephews, nieces and even 
my grandfat'aer may sell under the auction hammer to pay the debts or 
buy Ijread-stufls for members of the church, in the land of Chivalry. 
Shall my lather eat me indirectly by consuming what is given for me 
in exchange on a sale of my body I Oh ! horrid Christianity ! which 
can uphold such i)racticcs as these ! No paganism which is not better 
than sucli Christianity as this." 

SI.AVEIIOI.OERS UNMASKED. 

The abolitionists of the year 1836 have compelled the slaveholder 
to unmask hiinself and show the world his insincere heart, while hereto- 
fore he professed to regard slavery as an evil, and wished it might come 
an end. This, they admit now to bo false, and that they regard to 
slavery as a blessing, and the, substratum of the social edifice ; as de« 
fiirable for its own sake, and the best stut(! of things of which the na- 
ture of human institutions adunl, and they intend to perpetuate th«s9 



49 

blessings to future generations, securing their continuance to tn« 
end of the world. 

THE UNION DISSOLVED. 

The slaveholders have dissolved the Union so far as the 100,000 
abolitionists are concerned. No abolitionist, however distinguished 
he may be in the circles of learning, piety, talents, or philanthropy, 
can place his foot on slavery's soil. If he does, he sinks below the 
slave, into the grave, by the hands of lawless violence. All law is 
powerless in his defence. The abolitionist stands alone. The fed- 
eral compact yields no relief The slaveholders rush upon him with 
the ferocity of savage demons, and lynch him into eternity. This is 
the natural fruit of slavery. 

CONTINUED PIRACY. 

The same brute force, which the forefathers of the present proprie- 
tors of slaves, employed in the forests of Africa, at the dread hour of 
midnight, to reduce the siuve to possession, is now used by their chiv- 
alrous descendants to maintain their jurisdiction over the descendants 
of the kidnapped .African. 

The abolition of the old African slave trade, was accomplished by 
the passage of six different acts of Congress, from ISOf to 1824, by 
which every succeeding act, increased the penalty lorbrir^ing a person 
into this country, to make him a slave, until the punishment was death 
— the pirate's doom. The internal slave trade between the several 
states in this country, violates the same principles of justice and hu- 
manity which were violated by the old African slave trade, now abol- 
ished under the penalty of death. 

What is more plain, than the remedy for this glaring atrocity ? 

POWERS OF CONGRESS. — INTERNAL SLAVE TRADE. 

The same words, clauses, and sections, of the Constitution, which 
gave Congress the power to abolish the African slave trade, give Con- 
gress the ability to pass a law, to abolish the internal slave trade, now 
carried on between the slave states, in defiance of the loudest cries of 
humanity. 

Congress has power given it by the Constitution to regulate the 
commerce between the several states. W hat commerce can be of 
so high a character, or so important in its consequences, as a traffic in 
human beings, to the amount of more than 120,010 persons annually? 
More than double the amount ever imported from Africa, before the 
abolition of the slave trade, amounting in value from fifty to sixty mil- 
lions of dollars annually. 

Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and the western parts 
of North and South Carolina, grow negroes, aa an article of traffic 
for the more southern states. 

7 



50 

In fficl, these states are supposed to receive as much money frotri 
abroad tor their negroes sold to go out of their states, as for all othe? 
products exported beside. 

FOREIGN SLAVE TRADE. 

Let that same principle of hnmanily be the guiding genius of Amer- 
ican councils, and abolish the slave trade beiweecn the states, which 
smote with uplifted and powerful hand, the slave trade with Africa, and 
slavery itself would die a natural death from its own oppressive weigh* 
in the slave-selling states, while the abounding soils ol the far South 
must two thirds of them be cultivated by freemen, or lie waste. 

FOREIGN SLAVE TRADE COMPARED AVITH THE D03IEST1C. 

Did the South vote to abolish the slave trade with Africa, for the me- 
retricious purpose of monopolizing the slave market of the world, and 
creating one on the American soil, transcending, in the annals of its 
cruelty, all that Clarkson or Wilberforce has told of Africa's desola- 
tions ? Is it so ! \\ ere northern statesmen and philanthropists sleeping 
at their posts, in allowing the southern states, for twenty years after the 
adoption of the Constitution, to ransack the coasts and interior of Afri- 
ca, and tear from her, her affrighted and screaming sons and daughters, 
to turn them into slave,', marely as seed, to lay and spread a broad 
foundation for a future slave trade on the shores of America ? Oh ! 
horror ! Is all this seeming repentance for the wrongs done ill-fated 
Africa, by which our laws inhibit the importation of slaves under the 
penalty of deith a-ad the pirate's fate, a mere bubble, a device of trade, 
amounting to prohibition from abroad, to increase the value of a trade 
of the same description at home ? Has the slave trade of Africa been 
banished under a scale of ascending penalties, terminating in a pirate's 
death, barely to introduce a slave trade into America, the victims of 
which, in part, are the sons and daughters of white men, and thus 
make white blood and black blood share the terrors of the American 
domestic slave trade, vastly exceeding in point of numbers, atuuiallyT 
those imported from Africa, in any one year, from 178'J to ,8ti8 ? And 
inasmuch as the slavos of Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, 
and the monntiiin parts of the two Carolinas, are better infurmrd, and 
cultivated in tluir knowledge of right and wrong, than the nations of 
Africa, by so much the more are their sullerings increased in being torn 
from their natal si.il, and the rdative-J ti.cy have, than thr less inhum- 
ed children of Africa. 

UORROliS riF Tins TKAFFIt. 

The ulave has no interest in |)roperty or things, or m the sod. His 
whole eurtblv interest is in llu> love and symiiailiy of his relations, and 
in the beings tor whom he has formed strong attachments in his youth- 
ful days. Therefore, he i?, by a removal from those placee where h» 



91 

was raised, and in severing all the bonds that make life supportable, 
doubly robbed — always of himself, and lastly of his friends and rela- 
tions. The only objects that rendered him able to bear the burden of 
life are taken from him by this awful traffic. Hundreds commit sui- 
cide every year, and rush into the next world, being stripped of every 
thing in this, by which life might be sustained. The slave has nothing 
but what exists in the social affections : strip him of those objects, and 
his misery must be perfect — his agony helpless. No man can tell the 
story of such bereavement, who has not been torn as a slave from the 
soil where he was born, to bid an eternal farewell to all his friends and 
relations — the only property or interest he possesses (if so it may be 
called,) on this earth. He is never permitted to revisit those friends 
to whom he can never write. An impassable gulph separates them ! 
No. He parts with all he loves, at once, forever, never to be renewed 
on the shore oi time ; not for his own interest, not for a noble act of 
benevolence. No. — He goes to wear out his life for another, as a 
slave under the whip, for that man, who never thanks him lor his labor, 
but rewards hiin with hunger, nakedness, stripes, sorrow, and con- 
tempt, — till the grave, pitying him, takes and forever shelters in its bo- 
som, the son of toil, misery, insult and pain. It is said not less than 
120,000 are taken annually, from the northern slave states to the far 
South. 

EFFECTS OF COLONIZING. 

Every attempt by the South to aid the Colonization Society, to send 
free colored people to Africa, enhances the value of the slave left on 
the soil. By sending off free colored people, to Africa, there is no 
competition with the slave on the soil, for the purpose of labor. The 
slaveholder controls the entice sinews of labor by his own will, and can 
fix his own price. If there were free colored persons, to hire them- 
selves out on the plantations of Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and 
Arkansas, the slaveholders of Virginia, and the other slave growers, 
would find a competitor, in those sugar and cotton states, in the free 
laborer, whom the slaveholders are desirous of removing, that they 
may sell their slaves. 

IMPORTANCE OF ABOLISHING THIS TRAFFIC. 

But let the internal slave trade be abolished and slavery would come 
to an end by its own weight, in Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, Ten- 
nessee and the western parts of North and South Carolina. These 
countries;, in which Americans are grown for the internal slave trade, 
(Oh shameless trade !) if these slave growers could not send their sur- 
plus Americans abroad, and sell them at great prices, would sink under 
the weight of a population whom their old exausted slave soil could 
never support. And they would be compelled to manumit their colored 
people from necessity if they were forbidden under penalties such at 



&2 

nre inflicted on those in the slave trade with Africa, from sending them 
out of the state, or territory, or district where the slaves happened to 
be. The far South would be compelled to abandon slave labor and 
employ free colored people, in a great decree, if they could no longer 
import slaves from abroad to supply the havoc created by overworking, 
underfeeding, and an unhealthy climate. 

Again, slavery never can be abolished in the District of Columbia, 
or the Territories, with any expectation of advantage, until the inter- 
nal slave trade is abolished between the states. For the moment the 
slaveholder in the District of Cijkunbia, or in the Territories, perceived 
a law was about to be passed for the abolition of slavery in the Dis- 
trict, or Territories, before such a law could be passed, the District of 
Columbia or the Territories would be stripped of their slaves, who 
would be sent off in cofBes and sold at auction in some of the slave 
states. Thus it becomes every way important that Congress should 
exercise its unquestionable constitutional power, and restrain the " mi- 
gration " of slaves from one state, one district, or one territory to an- 
other, under the heaviest penalties, such as would be obeyed. 

THE CONSTITUTION. 

The fourth clause of the eighth section of the first article of the 
Constitution of the United States says, that Congress .'-hall have pow- 
er " to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among tiie several 
states, and with the Indian Tribes." 

The first clause of the ninth section of the first article of the Con- 
stitution says that " the migration or importation oi' such persons as 
any of the states now existing shall think proper to admit : shall not 
be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year 1808, but a tax or duty 
may be imposed on such importation, not exceeding $10, for each 
person." 

The authority to abolish the domestic slave trade, between the states, 
i; derived from fourth clause of the eight section above cited, and the 
prohibition of the exercise of the power of Congress, by the Consti- 
tution until 1808, by the ninth section of the same article (which al- 
ludes to the question of slavery alone,) is conclusive evidence that the 
framers of the Constitution itself, understood the power tn be coniered 
by the fourth clause of the eighth section, or else ihe prohibition ot' the 
exercise of this power, in the ninth section mitil 1808 would have been 
useless. For it is a principle of construction admitted, that n power 
to do an act can not be raised by implicnticui, from any clause of the 
Constitution, unless it become necessary, to exert^that power by legis- 
lation to carry into elfect some ucknowiedilid power of the Constitu- 
tion. Therefore the Couhtilulion construes the eighth section "to 
regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several vstates," 
as being a source of authority by which Cunuress niighl abolish the 
Sofiga n\fi\« trade, and al»o the ""-rnal slave trade a^iongstthe states. 



53 

Bui it may be urged that a power to regulate commerce, docs not carry 
with it a power to destroy it. This objection has often been raised, 
but always overruled by the decision, that a power to regulate com- 
merce is the same as a power to create and destroy, to make or un- 
make, and therefore Congress under the power to regulate commerce 
with foreign nations or among the states, has power to abolish any par- 
ticular tratfic or commerce which Congress believes to be unproHta- 
ble to the nation, or disgraceful to its humanity. Congress in six dis- 
tinct acts from 1808 to 1S24, passed fur the abolition and utter extinc- 
tion of the African slave trade, has acknowledged the construction 
now contended, for that a power to regulate, is a power to alter, change, 
modify, abolish or annihilate. Unless this proposition be true, these 
acts abolishing the African slave trade would be unconstitutional and 
void, as well as a host of other statutes deriving their power from the 
same source. Congress has power under the word " regulate " utter- 
ly to annihilate commerce with a particular nation, by embargoes, acts 
of perpetual non-intercourse, and finally, by open war, which is the 
end of all commercial relations. 

It may be inquired, how can the traffic, or commerce amongst the 
states, or between one state and another in relation to slaves be 
regulated ? In the first place, the states as between two or more of 
them have no power by treaty, or legislation, to regulate this matter as 
long as slavery is permitted in those states : for Virginia can not pass 
a law that a man from Maryland importing a slave from Maryland, 
shall be subject to a penalty of $500, or 3 years imprisonment, or that 
the slave jp^o/ac^o, by having been brought from Maryland to A'^ir- 
ginia should be free : Because the citizen of Maryland might cite the 
second section of the fourth article of the Constitution of the United 
States in which it is declared " that the citizens of each state shall be 
entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several 
states," which the state of Virginia cannot overthrow. 

In subjecting a Marylander to forfeiture, loss of liberty, or any other 
penalty in Virginia, for importing his slaves with himself, would be a 
course of treatment shown to the Marylander, not recognized by Vir- 
ginia towards her own citizens, for having slaves in their possession the 
law would be unconstutional and void, as the law of a state. If the 
individual states have not power to prevent the slave's migrating by 
command of the master from one state to another, it would follow, 
unless Congress has jurisdiction of the subject matter, that the internal 
slave trade among the states must be beyond the reach of the individ- 
ual states or the power of Congress. This is an absurdity, which we 
are not prepared to believe or adopt, that a subject so fraught with 
abuses, at the horrors of which the civilized world might grow pale — 
should have placed itself beyond federal or state legislation. The 
motives which appeared to influence the passage of the six different 
laws to abolish the African slave trade were the irrepressible gush- 



54 

ings of our common humanity in favor of the suffering slave, torn 
from his native land and sold into hopeless captivity. No interest 
hut ij;eneral humanity prompted the legislation which forever shut down 
the hat( hway on that bloody trade. Humanity now cries aloud — she 
goes in our streets — she weeps and howls on our highways — she knocks 
at the door of public feeling till her locks are wet with the cold dews 
of ni^ht — she goes across the ocean — she pleads not in vain for friends 
to flv to the rescue — she, through England, has sent back her indignant 
voice like the sound of many waters, to fall on the guilty slaveholder's 
ear in America. 

Motives and reasons for abolishing the slave trade between the states 
are greater as far as the question of humanity is concerned, than in the 
old slave trade. No doubt, there are twice as many groans, sighs and 
agonies felt, sufTered and endured from the American slave trade among 
the states, as felt by the slaves brought from Africa to the United 
States in any one year, between 1789 to 18L8. 

I'es, two persons, at least, suffer the horrors of migration from one 
state to another, where one suffered by importation I'rom the coasts of 
Africa to the United States. The word " migration " employed in the 
first clause of the ninth section of the first article, is signihcant indeed, 
and means nothing more nor less than going from one state to another, 
not from one part of the State to another; not coming I'rom a foreign 
country beyond sea, that would be met by the other word " importa- 
tion " which the abolition of the African slave trade undertook to pre- 
vent, in the six statutes passed for its abolition. 

CONCLUSION. 

It is firmly believed, that were a rigorous law passed by Congress, 
forbidding the internal slave trade between the states, that it would be 
equivalent to the manumission on the soil of two thirds of the slaves 
in the United States in less than ten years- 
It is therefore earnestly desired that every Anti-Slavery Society, or 
individuals who may petition Congress on the subject, may make the 
annihilation of the domestic, or internal slave trade between the states, 
a point of the most prominent importance, and pray for its entire 
AJiOLITION. 

ALVAN STEWART, 

Chairman of the Committee. 



55 



APPENDIX. 



LETTER OF JUDGE JAY. 

Bedford, 26th September, 1836, 

IIev. Sir — In my letter to you last November accepting the office of President 
6f the New-York Anti-Slavery Society I remarked " the distance of my residence 
from the place in which the business of the Society is to be conducted, will render 
my office nearly nominal, and I should therefore decline it, were it not for the 
efforts now making to frighten American citizens into the surrender of their 
dearest and most undoubted rights. Under existing circumstances, my duty both 
is a Christian and a republican, in my opinion, requires me to avoid even the ap- 
pearance of shrinking from the maintenance of those rights, and I therefore cheer- 
fully accept tlie place with which it has pleased the Convention to honor me." 

■Believing that my motives will not now be liable to misconstruction, I beg the 
favor of you, sir, to submit this my resignation of the office to the Society, at its 
approaching anniversary. It seems to me a good general rule that no one should 
hold an office, the duties of which he is unable to discharge, and I feel too deep 
an interest in the welfare of the Society, willingly to deprive it of the services it 
may derive from an efficient President. 

On retiring from the chair, I will take the liberty of making a few remarks on. 
the character of the struggle in which we are engaged. We commenced the pre- 
sent struggle to obtain the freedom of the slave — we are compelled to continue it 
to preserve our own. We are now contending, nol so much with the slaveholders 
of the South about human rights, as with tlie political and commercial aristocracy 
of the North, for the liberty of speech, of the press, and of conscience. Our pol- 
iticians are selling our constitutions and laws for southern votes — our great capi- 
talists are speculating, not merely in lands and banks, but also in tlie liberties of 
the people. We arc called to contemplate a spectacle never, I believe, before 
witnessed — the wealthy portion of the community, striving to introduce anarchy 
and violence on a calculation of profit, n>aking merchandise of peace and good 
order ! In Boston, we have seen the editor of a newspaper led through the streets 
with a halter, by " gentlemen of property and standing." The New- York mob& 
were excited, not by the humble penny-press, but by the malignant falsehoods and 
insurrectionary appeals of certain commercial journals. Rich and honorable men 
in Cincinnati have recently, at a public meeting, proclaimed lynch law, and through 
their intluence a printing press devoted to freedom has been destroyed, and the 
whole affair we are coolly and truly told, was a business transaction. 

The rioters in Utica, who insulted the Common Council, and bid defiance to its 
authority, and who forcibly dispersed a meeting of peaceable and religious men, 
voted themselves to be " good and reputable citizens I" Until lately, it was sup- 
posed that the political influence of wealth was conservative, and that the rich 
would array themselves on the side of law and order, for their own security. It 
is, however, a fact no less wonderful tlian melancholy, that the Jacobins of the 
present day are to be found among the rich and powerful, and that our penal laws 
seem made only tor the poor and the dispised. Jourjieymen mechanics, are in- 
dicted and punished for violations of law utterly insignificant in their character 
and tendency, compared with the outrages committed last year at Utica. Yet the 
first Judge of Oneida, one of the perpetrators of those outrages remains on the 
bench, another gentleman, distinguished by his violence on that occasion, has been 



tslcvated to the place ol" Attornoy General of i..c State of New York, in which 
capacity he will no doubt be ready to assist, when required, in prosecutions against 
Trades Unions ? 

It can not be, it is not in human nature, that judges and lawyers and rich mer- 
chants, will long enjoy tlie exclusive privilege of trampling upon the laws. These 
men arc sowing the wind and they will reap the whirlwind. They may see tho 
buddings of tlicir harvest in the recent assaults on the Holland Land Compaii}'. 
When the tempest of anarchy they arc now raising, shall sweep over the land, it 
will not be the humble abolilioiiist, but the lofty possessor of power and fortune, 
who will first be levelled by the blast. 

Tiie dangers which now threaten the tranquillity of society, the security of 
property, and the continuance of freedom, unite in calling upon abolitionists to put 
forth all their energies in extruding the knowledge and influence of their truly 
conservative principles. Founded as our Anti-Slavery 8oc!etics are, upon the 
great precepts of Christianity, occupied in oxplainiiig and inculcating tlie rights 
of man, acknowledging the obligations of human laws in all ca^^es not contraven- 
ing tile injunctions of the Supreme Lawgiver, and amid insult and outrage, aveng- 
ing not themselves, but committing their cause to him who judgeth righteously, 
they present an cxam])le and exert an influence well calculated to counteract 
the venal and disorganizing spirit wliich is .striving to propitiate tho demon of 
slavery, by sacrificing on his altar, the liberties of the North. 

The obligations of religion and patriotism, the duties we owe ourselves, our 
children, the cause of I'recdom and the cause of humanity, all require us to bo 
faithful to our principles, to persevere in our exertions, and to surrender our rights 
only with our breatii. Duties arc ours, and consequences are God's; and wiiilc 
we discharge the first, wc may be confident that the latter will be entirely consist- 
ent with our true wcltare. 

With the best wishes for the usefulness of the Society and the happiness of its 
members, 

I have the honor to be, Rev. Sir, 

Your very ob't serv't, 



Rev. Oliver Wetmore, 



WILLIAM JAY. 



LETTER OF REV. S. S. JOCELYN. 

New York, Oct. 15th, 1836, 
Rkv. Bicriah Grken, 

Very Dear Brother — Your very kind and urgent invitation to attend the anni- 
versary of the State Anti .Slavery Society on the H)lh inst. can hardly bo resisted, 
and nothing but stern nect^ssity will keep me iVom the meeting. That necessity 
exists, and my high gratification must be disappointed. I look to this meeting as 
one of great moment, and I cannot doubt that the God of the oppressed will incline 
his servants in great numbers to attend it to mingb; their counsels and prayers to- 
gether for the glorious object before the lricii<is of ll.unan Rights. 

The Convention last year, held at I'lica, to I'orm the State Society, was one of 
the most extraordinary character and important ever known in the worhi. — Our 
enemies at its first announcement so regarded it, hence their violent o])posilion 
through tin; press. It was ngarded as thr most daring and contemptuous ihsri'gard 
of i)ublic opinion, at a timi' when the enemy tell as if iiis foot was upon our neck. 
Hh.'ssed be God that lu' inspired hisHcrvants tosland upon liieir lect, and made their 
faces brass, arid their fijreheads ailamant, and all hough in tiie result with violence 
driven out froui the T(!in|)le of the Lord, he gave them I'avor and caused them to 
triumph. .May there be no occasion through the short-sightedness and wickcdnew 



67 

fef the enemies for such a triiunpli now, but may the way of the Lord be open and 
may your feel be set upon a large place, and the enemies submit themselves to tho 
holy principles whicii have so long agitated their guilty conseiences. Should you 
meet with any obstructions may you see how easy, through faith, they may be re- 
moved. 

Among the various topics which will come before the meeting, nothing is more 
important than the question of caste, and the improvement of the colored people 
generally. Aside from the value of a right decision on the subject of caste and the 
importance of the improvement of the people of color in reference to themselves, 
the importance of this question to the anti-slavery cause cannot be estimated. I 
have had intercourse with persons from the Soutli this year who are slaveholders, 
and learn from their opinions that nothing would tend more directly to break down 
slavery, than for us at the North to treat our colored bretiiren according to their 
conduct, irrespective of color. The South will harden in view of our hypocrisy, 
if we profess to hate slavery and yet continue to treat our colored brethren as 
outcasts. Do bring up this subject and have it examined in all its parts. I doubt 
not the result, and trust that the Society will give a tone to public opinion, at least 
so far as professed abolitionists are concerned, whicii will never be counteracted. 
As we have claimed more for the colored man than any class of abolitionists have 
in our country heretofore, we have created a deference to colored persons which 
never existed before. True it is, that there are contrary results in some instances, 
but the country as a whole never thought half so much or so highly of colored 
persons as they do now. Let us make an extraordinary effort for their improve- 
ment, and treat them as we ought, and others will follow our example, however 
much they may oppose us at firbt. You will be hapj y to learn ll.at we have ap. 
pointed three Pgcnts to ial^or forllie inipiovciicnt of the colored people. Rev. Mr. 
Miter, ]\lr. \N attlrs, and Mr. Yates, all very rear brethren, whohrveniuch liiiowl- 
edgc of the co](>r( d people, I;avirg lalored much with Ihtm heretoUiie. This is 
an omen of great good. We tliall want niaryn ore ?i:ch men in tl is r'cfarlir.tnt. 
My heart is full as I write on tl.it; M'lject, an(i I lorg to he wlo'ly cc x \>n(' in 
this blessed work. May (!ur blessed i^"aviorhe with jov all. arc' give yon v. ittxm 
and strength, and may there go forth frcm thcn.etliig ( i> the ]9i)i, a divine irfiu- 
ence, full of power and life ; and may the land tl trtly the fccntr leclorstd 
from its blood, and the millions of the victims ol slavery somcr rejcice iii tl cir 
freedom, and in the liberty wherewith Christ makethus Iree. With love to all the 
brethren, and full of hope in view of your meeting, 

I am, dear brother, 

Y'our fellow laborer 

in the cause of the opprcFfed, 

SIMEON S. JOCELYN. 

I trust that the Society will take decisive measures in reference to securing 
places for colored youth at trades. Let every abolitionist secure a place for ona 
youth at least — this can easily be done. Our work must be individual as as well 
«ollective in its character. 



TREASURER'S REPORT, 



New-York State Anti-Slavery Society, 

In account with S. Kellogg, Treasurer, 



Cr. 



1835 
Oct. 



Nov. 



Dec. 



183G. 
Jan. 



Feb. 



March 

April 
June 
JuJy 



Aug. 



Of, By cash rec'd at Pcterboro', (a collection,) 

27 1 " " " from Mrs. Huntin^on, of Peterboro, per 

1 Mrs. Smith, 
5'" " " of J. Copcland, 

20' " " Donation of Charles Stuart, per Rev. Mr. 

Wetmorc, 
•« " " Donation of Wm. Jaj-, Esq. 

27 " " rec'd of Seth Conklin, per S. H. Addington, 
3 <i n u u Abrani Xccley, 

17'" " " " Wm. II. Mowry of Greenwich, Washing, 
ton county, 

24 " " " " A. E. Coleman, per A. Raymond. 
" » E. S. Cadwell, §10, and C. C. Cad. 

well §3, 2>cr S. Sook, 
281 " " " fertile pledge of J. C. Knowles, per Geo 
Miller, 

7 " " " of Sarah Lord $5, of J. W. Smith, and R 
Snell $25, 
" " " E. Campbell of Lebanon, 
12 " " " " the Clinlon A. S. S, per Mr. Stewart. 

28 " " " " H. H. Kellogg-, Young Ladies' Domestic 
I Seminary, Clinton, 

29 «' " " " Oswego Free Church, per Mr. Cogswell, 
9 " " " from Faycttcville A. S. S. per Rev. Mr, 

I Smith, 

12 " " " of John M. Andrew, of Ruissia, 

16 " " " " Rev. Jolin Waters, 

25 «' " " " llenrv Brewster Esq., $50, of A. J 
I Bu'rr, JSilO, 

14" " •' Donation . "si 12, cash of Isaac Mills §5, 

" •' Subscription, 

28 ; " " " of N. West, 

22 " " " " Mr. jMvrick, 

7 " " " •' :Mr. Sinitli !$5, cash at collection §1 09, 

9 " " " " Klias Cliilds, 

24 " " " " Thomas Powell, 

2 " " " from the Depository per Kev. O. Wctmore, 
6 " " " " two friends in Augusta j)cr Rev. L. H. 

Loss, 

18 " " " of Arha Blair Esq. ^25, from office $30, 

19 " " •' from Otsc-ro Co. A. S. S. JJT^, from of- 

fiee .-^iTO, 
30 " " " " "lliec per Rev. O. \\'elmore, 

2 " " " per Rev. L. II. Loss, 

6 " " " of Utica Female A. S. S. 
•» " " " from the Depository, 



$238 79 



10 

100 
100 

1 

30 



13 



10 



SO 
18 
12 

20 
10 

35 
1 
5 

60 

6 12 
15 50 

3 

3 

6 09 

3 

G 50 
30 

8 
55 

l.'il 

10 

5 

12 

54 

tLiooua 



59 



1836. 












Amount brought over, 


$1,100 00 


Aug. 


11 


» " " " Cassville A. S. S. 


22 18 




16 


" " " of H. Phoenix $30, from office i$39, 


69 




18 


'' " " from Rome A. S. S., per S. B. Roberts, 


15 




30 


" " '• « Otsego Co. A. S. S. $10, Wm. Cope- 
land $1, 


11 




(t 


" " " of Mr. Averv,Sherbm-ne$l, from office $40, 


41 


Sept. 


1 


" " " " Mr. De Forest, 


5 




14 


" " •' " Orin Stevens, 


5 




17 


" " " " C. Green of Meehanicksville, 


20 




(( 


" " " frcm office. 


25 




26 


" " " of Mr. L. Wilcox, 


13 87 




28 


" " " " Mrs. A. Day, 


10 


Oct 


11 


» » " " O. N. Bush's check, dated Nov. 1, 1836, 


103 




a 


«• " " " W. D. Walcott 


10 




18 


" " " donation of Utica Female Juvenile A. S. 








S. per A. Savage, 


10 68 




19 


" " «' of Alvan Stewart, 


500 






« » " " Mr. Fitch, 

Total. 


100 




$2,060 73 



New-York State Anti- Slavery Society, 

In account with S. Kellogg, Treasurer, 



Dr. 



1835. 


— 






Oct. 1 


26 


To 2 blank books, each $3, $2, 


5 




31 


" paid for repairing Bleeker street church, 


31 38 


Nov. 


20 


" " " draft to S. P. Lyman, 


175 




26 


" " " " '• '■ 


95 


Dec. 


3 


•' " Rev. O. Wetinore per order of Committee, 


4 


1836. 








Jan. 


29 


" " Rev. O. Wetmore's order to J. T. Lyman, 


100 


Feb. 


5 


" « J. T. Lyman, 


79 75 




25 


" " postage. 


13 




26 


" " " on certificate of deposit in Monroe Co.Bank. 


38 


March 


14 


" " J. T. Lyman, 


176 13 




19 


" •' cash. 


5 


May- 


28 


" " William Goodell, 


50 


June 


28 


" " 1 3-4 yds. green baise 5s., 16 yds. ferreting \d. 


1 25 


July 


19 


" " Rev. L. Wilcox, per order of Ex. Committee, 


63 82 


June 1, 








& July 


30 


'' " Wm. Goodell $100. — Discount on uncurrent 








money $0 29, 


100 29 


Aug. 


3 


" " Wm. Goodell, 


60 




6 


" " Rev. L. Wilcox, per order of Rev. O. Wetmorc, 


12 84 




29 


" " James Sayre for rent. 


10 


Sept. 


15 


" » Wm. Goodell, 


100 




19 


" " 2 blank books $4 50, 1 bottle red ink 12 l-Scts. 


4 63 




26 


" " Rev. L. Wilcox for services, &.c. 


55 




29 


" " Wm. C. Rogers, 


25 


Oct. 


19 


" " toward press $207, and for type $90 


297 






" " " paper in June last, 


239 




„ 


'« " « " 18th Oct., 


127 50 






Balance in the hands of the Treasurer, 


242 99 






Total. 


$2,060 73 



60 



ERRATA. 



The reader is desired to notice and correct the following errors in the preceed- 
ing pages, viz : 

1. Page 7. List of Executive Committee, third line from the top, for Joseph 
S; Mitchell, Ulica, read John S. Mitchell, Utica. 

2. Page 14. List of Delegates, first line at the top, for Burrell read Burnell. 

3. Page 14. List of Delegates, fourth line from the close, instead of Sand, 
wich Islands read Cleavlarid, Ohio. [N. B. This brother whose residence was 
thus erroneously reported, is about to visit tliG Sandwich Islands, instead of having, 
as was understood, recently arrived frum there-] 

4. Page IG. Fourth line from the top, supply the word time before " must," so 
that the clause will read thus — " ti7ne must show." 

5. Page 36. Seventh line from the top, for ''policy" read polity. 

6. Page 40. Fifth line from the bottom, for " car" read ears. 

7. Page 48. Third line from the top, for "quandrary" read quandary. 

8. Page 42. Tliird line from the top, connect the words " 7nen" and " scoffers" 
thus — men-scoffers. 

9. Same page. Near the middle, for " Dante " read Danton. 

10. Page 44. Fifth line from the bottom, instead of " combinations for its sup. 
pression" read "combinations for the overthrow of slavery." 

[It is due to the printer to say that the greater part of these errors were in the 
eopy.] 



S4 ir 












0' f^l,*^'. "^^ V .c 


























